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- ITV to air Roblox-inspired animated series
ITV to air Roblox-inspired animated series
& Red Bull Studios secure multi-year financing to produce sports documentaries & ATP Tour + Trace launch Collect: It All Adds Up
Joe Condon
August 05, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 18 minutes
Welcome to Edition #71 everyone!
Today’s edition spotlights ITV’s decision to air Toikido’s Piñata Smashlings animated series, and why gaming and interactive has become such a hotbed for incubating new IP.
Also covered: Red Bull Studios & IPR VC to co-finance a slate of sports documentaries in multi-year deal, and the multiple ways content is being funded today + ATP Tour and Trace launch Collect: It All Adds Up, and how it can power the Tour to indirectly monetise their fanbase.
Let’s get into it!
Contents: Edition #71
ITV to launch Roblox-inspired series, Piñata Smashlings, in September
ITV has secured the UK distribution rights for the animated series Piñata Smashlings, inspired by the popular Roblox game. Produced by Nelvana and Toikido, the series will air on ITVX and YTV in Canada.
Why should you care?
TL;DR: Toikido’s Piñata Smashlings shows how franchises can thrive by going game‑first. Born on Roblox, the IP built its audience through play before expanding to toys and an upcoming animated series. Games are no longer just extensions but can be the heartbeat of IP. For new IPs, a great game must come first; for legacy brands, authentic, interactive experiences can refresh and expand their worlds. Is the new model play first, and then everything else follows?
In full: Toikido is a name that attendees of SEG3 London might know well - with their Head of Marketing Andrew Matjaszek strutting his stuff on stage in 2024.
They describe themselves as a “creative toy led gaming studio”, with a number of projects that may ring a bell for those with a web3 disposition, with work on VeeFriends & more recently, Bad Egg co.
However, their breakout moment didn’t come from crypto, but from a swarm of mischievous creatures born on Roblox, called Piñata Smashlings.
Their approach was rather than build the toy, and then launch them into the game afterwards, the incubation of the IP focused on being games-first, with Toikido’s Founder & CEO Darren Garnham saying in 2022:
“Piñata Smashlings is going to be the first IP truly grown from the Roblox platform to launch global consumer products and other forms of media…We’re not trying to shoehorn a current toy onto the platform for marketing purposes, or chasing something that has already been successful.”
3 years, million of plays and a Euro 2024 partnership later, they’re now taking the next step with the franchise - with the animated series hitting screens in the UK (via ITV) & Canada (via YTV) in September.
The animated series, produced by Nelvana, is creating 26 bite-sized 11 minute episodes, lending from the gameplay that audiences loved on Roblox to extend the story and lore of the characters even further.
And it’s the next rational step in their franchise building journey. The Roblox experience allows fans to immerse and interact with the Smashlings IP, the toy line lets them hold it in their hands IRL (with 3 million units having been sold), and now, the animated series to broaden the world and story.
The game-first model represents a (not-so) quiet revolution happening across IP & franchise building. Whereas the traditional model would’ve seen gaming & interactive as an extension, it is now becoming the heartbeat of many-a-franchise (old & new), as Peter Levin of Griffin Gaming partners so perfectly put it at SEG3 LA last December:
“Instead of being a hub-spoke model where gaming & interactive storytelling is the spoke, it may end up inverted where gaming ends up being the hub and the other extensions the spoke…and in success management teams will have a much more intimate relationship with that fanbase - they’ll have more data, more touchpoints and more opportunities to communicate”.
And that, ultimately, is the tension and opportunity for anyone thinking about franchise-building in 2025.
If you’re creating something new, the lesson from Piñata Smashlings and a growing list of game-first IPs is clear. Focus on building a great game first.
As the CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer put it:
"We’re focused on being a great creator of interactive entertainment, video games, and then if these other opportunities show up, great. But we start most IP, almost all of our new IP, with, how is it going to play?"
A great game opens up the downstream opportunities. A weak game means audiences don’t form, and they’re no longer available to you. So whilst there should be strategic planning for how your IP can be adapted and where it can be taken later down the line - the focus has to be on hitting a home run in your medium of choice first.
For legacy IP owners, the inversion of the hub-and-spoke model presents equally exciting opportunities. Gaming and interactive experiences should no longer be just “extensions” or low-risk licensing plays - they’re definitively touchpoints that can refresh an ageing brand, expose it to new audiences and create a far deeper relationship with fans given they can immerse themselves in the game.
But similarly, for IP not native to games, the adaptations only work when they respect the medium, and create an experience that feel authentic to play. A reskin or inauthentic tie-in will only damage the franchise.
So, Piñata Smashlings is a good example of how gaming can be the heartbeat of the IP, and the bridge to every other medium.
Because in today’s landscape, play comes first, and everything else follows.
IPR VC & Red Bull Studios to finance & produce multi-year premium sports documentaries
Red Bull Studios has partnered with Finnish investment firm IPR.VC to co-finance a multi-year slate of premium sports and sports-adjacent documentaries. Red Bull Studios' have been responsible for producing the likes of The Dawn Wall and The Real Mo Farah, with IPR.VC having raised over $200 million from institutional investors and family offices for previous productions.
Why should you care?
TL;DR: Sports documentaries are booming and are engaging not just hardcore fans but casual audiences drawn to behind‑the‑scenes stories and human drama. However - funding them remains challenging, but partnerships like Red Bull Studios x IPR VC show how co‑financing can make it a reality. With media consumption at all‑time highs, those willing to invest in premium sports storytelling now can capture audience attention, shape culture and ride a rapidly growing genre.
In full: Sports documentaries are now a firm part of the furniture. From Drive to Survive to the most recent release of WWE: Unreal - sports docs have carved out their own niche, reaching millions of fans (hardcore and casual), and creating whole new subcultures around sports IP’s athletes and events.
A report from Betfair found that 60% of sports doc viewers don’t regularly follow the sport they're watching, and that 21% of respondents are watching more sports docs than five years ago - so they’re undoubtedly a fantastic tool to engage with audiences on the fringes of your sport who are more attracted by the entertainment value and human aspect vs live-event and analysis.
Fairly simple really. It creates a broader surface areas for audiences to engage with your sport, talent and content, so you can see why there’s an appetite to create this genre of content.
What isn’t simple? Getting the funding to produce said content.
Not much is being commissioned. Budgets are low. There’s high deficits for producers. And if working with streamers, retaining the rights can be a task.
So producers are all looking at different models to support development. In this case, Red Bull Studios have partnered with a IPR VC to co-finance a multi-year slate of sports (and sports adjacent) documentaries.
This certainly gives them more certainty about how they’ll produce the content, and given the successes between RB Studios & IPR VC in their previous respective projects, they’ll have conviction that they can provide a return on investment by servicing the streamers, broadcasters and studios insatiable thirst for BTS content.
And with RB Studios, and Red Bull as a brand more broadly, having found success by being focused on niche, high-energy, adrenaline fuelled sports and experiences, there is an inherent hook to the content they’ll create.
And so by leaning further into those experiences and communities that already sit at the heart of youth and adrenaline culture, it will give them all the ingredients they need to garner attention from audiences across socials all the way to the big-screen, and put their stories at the centre of the conversation.
Andrea Scarso, Partner at IPR VC says it well:
This collaboration reflects our ongoing strategy to support premium, globally relevant stories told through scripted and non-scripted genres, across film, television and the wider content economy, whilst offering those investors seeking relevance and the opportunity to shape culture, a vehicle to do just that.
So whilst many are having to get creative to finance content, there is still light at the end of the tunnel once produced given media consumption is at the highest it has ever been, with all generations wanting to consume (and be entertained) no matter the economic environment.
So for producers and investors that are willing to finance high-quality content (like sports docs) whilst others delay, they may well be able to capitalise on a rapidly growing genre where they can influence conversation across a broad audience of sports fans and across broader culture.
ATP Tour launches Collect: It All Adds Up
The ATP Tour has launched a playable collection game called Collect: It All Adds Up, offering fans the chance to engage with exclusive content and earn rewards by engaging with major tournaments like the National Bank Open and Nitto ATP Finals. The collection game, developed with Trace, aims to expand fan engagement by allowing users to collect digital "Tournament Passes" and "Match Cards," unlocking access to limited edition rewards.
Why should you care?
TL;DR: ATP Tour’s new “Collect: It All Adds Up” expands on last year’s successful “Momentum“ collectibles, letting fans track and commemorate their tennis journey across ATP and WTA events. While free to play and prize-driven, its real value lies in fan insight and engagement - turning interactions into data that helps the Tour personalise experiences, strengthen sponsorships and deepen loyalty without short‑term monetisation. In short: it’s less about selling collectibles, and more about understanding fans to fuel long‑term growth.
In full: The ATP Tour’s launch of “Momentum” last year at the ATP Nitto Finals allowed fans to claim collectibles within a timed window for each match - enabling them to build a record of their fandom at the tournament.
What they’d watched. What they’d attended. Evolving as the tournament did.
It generated 75,000 fans from 110 countries, with that group collecting more than 777k matches in 8 days.
It’s perhaps no surprise therefore that the ATP Tour & Trace have teamed up once again to expand their relationship - this time returning with “Collect: It All Adds Up”.
So, what are the key benefits of the collection game, and what has been newly introduced this time around?
Key benefits:
Free to collect (see video at the bottom for why this is important!)
Accessible by browser - no app necessary
Entry into prize draws for rewards
Newly introduced:
Collaboration with the WTA to collect their matches too
The launch of Tennis ID - The ATP’s official fan credential
Mark Epps, Director of Comms & Web3, and SEG3 London alumni, shared:
“For so many fans around the world, tennis is a ritual – staying up late, keeping up with results, staying close to the story of the Tour…Until now, there’s never been a way to mark that journey. Collect was created to change that. It’s a way for fans to look back and be recognised for their love of the game.”
With collectibles going to be available at the ATP Masters 1000 events in Canada, Cincinnati and Shanghai, and the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals, it will certainly be interesting to track along to see the % of new fans that engage from across the globe, the retention rate from Momentum that return for Collect & how it all feeds into arguably the most intriguing part of the release, the launch of Tennis ID - The ATP’s official fan credential.
When discussing Red Bull Racing, Abstract, Gate & Uncaged’s partnership to launch 24 digital collectibles across this years race season, and how it can be step one into creating a Fan ID, I said:
“Although this launch is not a new playbook as such, it’s not meant to be. The goal here isn’t the collectibles, but what they can enable.
More data, and sponsorable assets.
So when a fan interacts with content, attends an event or collects an entire set, they’re sending a signal and insight into how they want to interact with your brand. This allows Red Bull (and their partners) to tailor content, offers and experiences far more effectively for their fans, which should benefit everyone across the sports value chain.”
And it’s the same here with Collect - it’s delivering more insight and commercial opportunity for the ATP Tour, whilst helping fans to commemorate their interactions with the brand and be rewarded for doing so.
But whilst there is commercial opportunity, this isn’t coming from directly monetising your fans in the short-term. Instead the value is borne from the newfound understanding you’ll have of your fans behaviours and wants.
And these insights help you to better guide your partners on what makes your fanbase tick, enabling you to monetise (and perhaps retain) partners more effectively, whilst also helping you to deliver a better fan experience for your audience. A win-win.
And given fans are the lifeblood of your property - that feels like a smart commercial strategy to me.
Because as Caroline Buckland of Oracle Red Bull Racing said at SEG3 London - “Giving things to the audience for free and building a really engaged community of fans builds so much more momentum”. 👇
In other news this week…
MSquared release Bathroom Blitz using Otherside ODK: read here.
Burnley FC & Rezzil partner for VR matchday broadcast: read here.
Arsenal partner with Stanley 1913: read here.
BMW picks Dentsu for European media account: read here.
Sony Music Entertainment release PartyNextDoor Fortnite playable concert: read here.
SEGA teams up with Timberland for Sonic footwear collaboration: read here.
TikTok expands “Out-of-Phone” program: read here.
Rockstar Games are staffing up its creator division: read here.
Studio Moshi Animation & Moose Toys team up for MrBeast animated series: read here.
Coinbase integrates Samsung Pay into app: read here.
Cambridge United FC partners with Genie AI for contract management: read here.
BFI offer up to £200k in funding for innovation challenge focused on data collection: read here.
How Figma is integrating AI to transform design: read here.
Atari acquires Thunderful for over $5m: read here.
ECB finalises strategic partners for growth of The Hundred: read here.
SK-Slavia Praha launch kit on Roblox: read here.
LIV Golf rolls out ‘The Duels’ with YouTube creators at JCB event: see here.
Genius Sports secures exclusive data & betting streaming rights for Serie A: read here.
Gadsme partner with Konami for immersive ads: read here.
EVEN partners with Secretly Distribution: read here.
OnlyFans signs up cricket star Tymal Mills: read here.
EA launch Plants vs Zombies: Replanted on Nintendo Switch 2: see here.
Working on anything cool, or have a press release you would like us to cover? Send it in for the chance for it to be covered in next week’s edition!
That’s all for now folks - thanks again for reading the latest edition of The SEG3 Report and if you found it of interest, please do consider sharing with a friend!