Virtual reality (VR) business EVR Holdings (LSE:EVRH), recovered some recent losses this morning, rising 5.8pc to 9.6p after announcing a tie-up with concert provider National Exhibition Center Group (NEC Group). EVR- a holding company for VR music platform MelodyVR- said the multi-year partnership would see it offer exclusive virtual access to live events held at NEC Group’s venues from artists like 50 Cent and Britney Spears.
MelodyVR uses virtual reality to simulate the experience of actually being at a concert, and allows fans to purchase digital tickets to sold-out, real-world events. Under today’s deal, NEC Group’s concerts and virtual concert tickets will be available to buy via the MelodyVR app on all Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR headsets. In addition, upcoming VR shows will be promoted on selected events pages on The Ticket Factory, NEC Group’s official box office.
Anthony Matchett, CEO of MelodyVR, said: ‘I’m very pleased to announce our exclusive partnership with NEC Group Arenas, which will see events live-streamed directly from their infamous venues, as well as VR event tickets promoted via their official box office website – The Ticket Factory. Our relationship with the NEC Group forms part of a series of commercial arrangements which we expect to conclude over the coming weeks with other landmark entertainment venues. It is my intention to provide a trading and strategic update as part of our interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2018, the content of which will provide greater insight as to the direction and ambitions of our business.’
As Matchett point out, today’s deal is the latest in an increasingly long line for EVR Holdings, which has secured content partnerships with the world’s three largest record labels – Universal, Warner, and Sony. Last June, the firm announced a game-changing global collaboration with Microsoft, securing MelodyVR’s availability to 500,000,000 Windows 10 consumers. More recently, in June, the business announced plans to launch MelodyVR in eight additional EU countries alongside Facebook and partnered with Taylor Swift’s record label, Big Machine Label Group.
Despite these updates providing EVRH with some brief respite, the firm has seen its shares suffer a major slide since peaking in April around the time of a placing to raise £25m ahead of MelodyVR’s initial launch.
The company’s £117.6m valuation is likely to still be too costly for some, especially those who are yet to buy into the VR story after its repeated historic misfires. However, with shares now at 9.6p against highs of 16.8p, deals like today’s suggest industry and investor appetite for MelodyVR remains, creating plenty of potential upside if it can deliver on its ambitious plans.
Indeed, regardless of what you think EVR Holdings, it would hard to accuse the business of lacking ambition. It plans to use its new placing proceeds to launch MelodyVR in Latin America, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. It will also invest in global content creation, engineering, research & development, marketing, new hires and new offices. Finally, it will also be used to explore additional technologies such as interactive advertising and augmented reality in a bid to generate other revenue streams.