NEW YORK, May 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ted Owen, the father of E-sports, has recently launched PlayAPI. He was the first mover in the multi-billion-dollar industry of E-sports through one of his first groundbreaking companies, Global Gaming League, launched in 1999. He states that PlayAPI, a company based on aggregating data across platforms and publishers, is just as innovative and, in his words, "likely to be far more successful" than the multi-billion-dollar industry he is already responsible for launching. In fact, it was during his time as CEO of GGL that he really made a name for himself in the video gaming industry.

"Mr. Ted Owen is a Co-Founder of Global Gaming League and serves as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Owen is a pioneer of the video gaming industry. His founding of Professional Interactive Entertainment Inc. in 2002, was the culmination of a lifelong fascination. Mr. Owen's participation in the industry evolved from youthful recreational devotion at the very inception of video games to all-out professional passion," according to Bloomberg.com.

Owen's background in video games is extensive. In fact, he studied and launched several innovative companies in the video gaming industry between 1993 and 2017, with his latest project, PlayAPI. After graduating from Duke University, he started an investment banking company named Owen, Diaz and Altschul based in NYC, which focused on investing in early stage video game companies such as Spectrum Holobyte and 3-DO as well as numerous other successful video gaming companies. Deciding that he wanted to build something rather than what he called "shuffling paper around," he left Owen, Diaz and Altschul and co-wrote the business plan for UGO. UGO was the first company of its type to allow the public rather than the professionals to write reviews on video games. Mr. Owen was the first to write public reviews of such notable games such as GTA, Max Payne, and Command and Conquer.

It was at this time, after the sale of UGO, Owen and his co-partner, Jason Carlton, conceived of the concept that video gaming would one day become a sport. GGL was the culmination of that vision, and Mr. Owen, through GGL, was the first to not only take video games to the Beijing Olympics in China as an exhibition sport, but also sign contracts with MTV, TNT and the Gravity games, the precursor to the X Games. He also is notable for his innovations such as the Hip-Hop Gaming League, which featured hip hop stars at the time competing in leagues and filmed for MTV. That was in 2006, and included Snoop Dogg and Method Man to name a few, whereas today you can turn on the TV to see that this was a decade ahead of its time. In fact, his bringing video gaming as an exhibition sport to the Beijing Olympics paved the way for video gaming to become a medal sport in the 2020 Olympic games. Ted Owen's cousin, Jake Burton, the founder of snowboards, was also responsible for snowboarding becoming an Olympic sport. It seems that visionaries run in the family.

Ted has consulted for the Yucaipa Companies, advising them for how to best invest in the video gaming industry, as well as consulting to investors, companies and individuals in the digital media space.

Ted Owen's partner, Jason Carlton, is a lifelong gamer and evangelist of online gaming. He is a former professional quake player and founder of Death Row, the first globally recognized E-sports team. It was there that he met Ted Owen, and together they came up with the concept of the first major E-sports league and social network for video gaming, in the U.S that ran for 14 years.

Ted's other partner in PlayAPI, Jose Luis Coriolo, goes way back, having first met when Owen became involved in the world of investment banking, developing both a professional and personal relationship over time. They knew a long time ago that if their particular skills were combined, great things would eventually happen. The founding of PlayAPI is the result of this. In fact, Jose Coriolo's background is with Citigroup, where he focused particularly on new technology.

"To have a global financial leader such as Citi select NYSE Technologies' managed service is a tremendous validation of DART's value and utility in today's data-intensive environment. Our approach is to help customers reduce their costs, and increase their efficiency, by managing market data in smarter, more effective ways. DART offers a complete range of global, exchange-agnostic tools and services that address most aspects of a firm's administration of market data," according to banking-business-review.com.

Finally, Mr. Owen was named a top 20 entrepreneur by Stuff Magazine and included in Maxim Magazine's list of 10 individuals changing the world in digital media. Play API looks like a success in the making, and it seems Mr. Owen is again an entrepreneur and individual to watch in 2017. Mr. Owen has come a long way since his attempt to be a top tennis star and has had a huge influence on the largest entertainment form in the world, video gaming, having created what is now the largest sport in the world, video gaming, and having predicted it way before anybody gave it any credibility.

Contact: Chris Hinman Phone: 786-332-6230

SOURCE Ted Owen