Play Hard Sports, developer and publisher of free-to-play sports games, has announced the completion of a round of Series B funding, raising $8 million and bringing the company's total capital raised in the last nine months to $13 million.

Valhalla Partners led the round of investment and was joined by TriplePoint Capital and existing investor, New Enterprise Associates. As part of the investment, Scott Frederick of Valhalla Partners is to become a member of Play Hard’s Board.

Play Hard is currently in development of its first title, Play Hard Football, which is to launch concurrently with the 2009 NFL season, and open for beta within "a few months." The title is to be a Flash-developed, browser-based title where players take the role of a coach/general manager of a football team, competing against other player-owned franchises across the globe.

“There is a lot of innovation coming from online entertainment and games companies right now,” said Scott Frederick, General Partner, Valhalla. “We are confident that Play Hard Sports’ pioneering ‘freemium’ model will be successful. Add the team of industry veterans, who are responsible for the market’s biggest MMORPGs and sports games, including Madden 05, 06, NFL2K, NBA2K and The Lord of the Rings, and you have an unbeatable combination of strategy and execution.”