Azubu co-founder Windhorst has assets frozen

One of the key figures behind livestreaming service Azubu has run into some serious financial trouble.

Dotesports reports that the London High Court has frozen the assets of German entrepreneur Lars Windhorst, who was the financier behind Azubu. It is alleged that Windhorst did not honour a deal to purchase nearly $70m of securities from the Romanello Financial Corporation.

There are also allegations that Azubu faced constant funding challenges, with investment being drip-fed” into the company, resulting in delayed wage payments to staff and creditors going unpaid.

Outside of Azubu, Windhorst – who Slingshot reports has previously filed for bankruptcy and pleaded guilty to embezzlement – has paid out millions in dispute resolutions this year alone and is currently in the process of selling a $25m Hyde Park apartment.

Azubu in May merged with Hitbox to form new company Smashcast, which was dubbed as the world’s largest independent eSports broadcaster outside Asia. The platform hopes to be a main competitor to Twitch, and will be the only streaming service to offer 4K/60fps playback.

We’re excited to announce the new company name and brand resulting from the merger of Hitbox and Azubu,” Smashcast CEO Mike McGarvey said at the time.

Smashcast will launch with a new hype feature for viewer engagement which represents just the first step in our long-term vision to create the best broadcaster-to-viewer experience in the world of esports and competitive gaming.”

European MD Martin Klimscha added: The new Vienna production facility is a key next step for us in ensuring the quality of support we provide our broadcasting and publishing partners. We wanted specifically to ensure that we are differentiated from our competitors not only from our platform and technology excellence, which includes full 4K and 360 VR support, but from the quality of streaming content as well.”