Side Quest Games launch: King and Scopely veterans bet niche sports fans are mobile gaming's overlooked high-LTV segment
Summary
Side Quest Games launched April 16, 2026 in Barcelona with a 5-person founding team from King, Scopely, and EA.
Core thesis: niche sports fanbases have high engagement but zero dedicated mobile products.
The team claims 1B+ combined downloads, now applying mass-market retention mechanics to underserved audiences.
"Create the best sports games for everyone - especially for the fans of sports that have been overlooked by the industry"
01
Niche sports fanbases have demand but no mobile products - Side Quest Games targets that gap
Major publishers concentrate mobile sports budgets on football and basketball.
Side Quest Games frames this as a supply-side failure, not a demand problem.
Accessibility is a stated design priority, positioning titles casual-to-mid-core.
For BD teams: underserved sports IP holders may now have a credible development partner.
02
Mass-market retention playbooks applied to high-engagement niches is the core arbitrage
Besenval and Jardi built careers at King, Scopely, EA, and 3Match Games.
Founding team of 5 includes senior game designer, engineer, and artist.
1B+ combined career downloads validate execution against mass-market benchmarks.
The bet: proven mobile loops transplanted to passionate, underserved communities yield outsized LTV.
03
Backed at launch with operator-network capital but no disclosed round size
Named investors and mentors: David Fernandez Remesal, Gwenael Heliou, Adam Jaffe, Maxime Delobel, Georges Lopes.
Undisclosed funding size suggests seed or pre-seed stage.
Barcelona base taps the King, Social Point, and Supercell-invested talent cluster.
Pocket Gamer Connects Barcelona (June 15-16, 2026) offers immediate industry visibility.
04
First title already in development - two triggers to watch in H2 2026
Besenval confirmed active development on the first game as of April 2026.
If the debut targets a digitally underserved sport (rugby, handball, cycling), early store metrics test the thesis directly.
Publishers and UA agencies should track the first soft-launch market for niche selection and pricing signals.
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