More investors of professional sports are going for that e-sports money. With Team Dignatas now bought by the Philidelphia 76ers, an NBA basketball team, another successful e-sports organisation is going the same route. Team Liquid’s main stakeholders- founder and co-CEOs Steve Arhancet and Victor Goossens have sold most of their controlling shares to Peter Guber and Ted Leonisis, who leads aXiomatic, an investment group of various US sports teams including the Golden State Warriors. One of the investors in the group is NBA legend Magic Johnson.
This continues the trend of US investors involved in professional sports are dipping into e-sports, with former NBA players or NBA teams involved with the deal.
The two co-founders of Team Liquid will remain as co-CEOs. Now having a board of directors (with the two having a seat in there) instead of having sole ownership, there is more at stake to bringing in results and growing the team on a long term basis. In the official presser from Team Liquid, Victor Goosens reassure this with this statement:
“An important message I wanted to communicate today is that Steve and I are both on long term agreements as Co-CEO’s of the company. In a way, our involvement in leading Liquid is even more assured now than when we were sole owners. There is no place I would rather be than working to bring Liquid to greater heights together with our amazing staff and players.”
Team Liquid is one of the most established e-sports teams around, with a huge roster spanning multiple games including Starcraft 2, Dota 2, CS:GO, Overwatch, and even Street Fighter V and Smash Bros. Speaking of which, Team Liquid player HungryBox is the current EVO champion of Super Smash Bros. Melee. They also host the incredible useful resource for e-sports that is Liquipedia.
With more investors looking into e-sports as something worth the money, hopefully it will trickle down to the rest of the e-sports scene. With more money flowing.
Header Image Source: Daily Dot