Guild eSports plc (LON:GILD) announced a two-year sponsorship deal with Razer valued at mid six figures USD. Razer will be Guild’s Official Gaming Chair Partner, with 20% of the contract value paid in the form of gaming chairs for Guild’s players, content creators and the Guild Academy and headquarters. The transaction gives Razer marketing rights and exposure across Guild’s facilities and its social and digital content. We provide further updates below.
- More sponsorships to come: Guild eSports has other sponsorship deals in advanced stages. On 8 March 2022, Guild announced that its new business pipeline was strong and several potentially significant sponsorship deals (including Razer) were at advanced stages of negotiations. Razer is the fifth brand to sign with Guild, alongside Bitstamp (£1.5m p.a.), Subway (£1.5m p.a.) and Hyper X and Samsung (£0.5m p.a. combined). In total, Guild has signed £8.8m of minimum aggregate contracted sponsorship revenue to date (FY22: £3.6m p.a.). Guild offers sponsors access to the difficult-to-reach and rapidly growing Gen-Z audience.
- Board changes: Also on 8 March, James Savage, executive finance director, resigned for personal reasons and an interim CFO is due to start imminently. Guild also announced that Simon Walters, Chris Sullivan and Andrew Drake will step down as non-executive directors, to be replaced by Mike Edwards and Brian Stockbridge. Mike Edwards has over 20 years’ experience building and selling consumer technology companies, including AreaConnect.com, Wyley Interactive, Creative Labs and Leaf Mobile. Brian Stockbridge has over 20 years’ experience in corporate finance. He is CEO of First Sentinel Corporate Finance Limited and has served as a Regulator for the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers.
- Tournament wins and scaling up: Guild won its fifth major esports trophy in March 2022 after securing first place in the Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) EU Final. This followed Guild player, Hen, winning the Fortnite Champion Series Grande in November 2021. Guild now has six professional teams with 22 players.
- World’s fastest growing esports organisation: We estimate Guild has grown its social media followers to over 1.1m at the end of February 2021, up 7x from a year ago. Continued operational progress on fanbase growth and tournament wins should provide the foundation for further sponsorship and viewership progress.
- Forging champions: Guild Esports is positioned to become the leading global esports brand based in the UK. With strong support from David Beckham, including contracted promotional activity, the company plans to pioneer the UK Premier League academy model in esports, attract leading sponsors, build a loyal fan base and establish a premium line of merchandise. Management indicated on 8 March that trading has been in line with its expectations.
