Guild\u2019s executive chairman on David Beckham\u2019s involvement & future plans Guild EsportsGuild Esports exploded onto the scene just a few months ago, making headlines and receiving criticism along the way. The organization\u2019s executive chairman Carleton Curtis speaks on David Beckham\u2019s involvement, the reception they have received so far, and what\u2019s to come. [jwplayer Yi1e25kP] \u201cOur general thesis in esports and sports is when it comes to teams, there\u2019s a finite amount that truly matters. When I mention that I want to be in the same conversation as TSM and Cloud9 in one or two years, that\u2019s my short-term goal. My long-term goal is to be in the same conversation as Manchester United, FC Barcelona, the Dallas Cowboys,\u201d that\u2019s how Dexerto\u2019s conversation with Curtis ended, but how does the organization plan to make it there? Being an organization that is not only based in the United Kingdom but actively representing it hasn\u2019t been fruitful for many brands looking to make a name worldwide. The likes of Fnatic and Excel Esports have transcended their roots, but that\u2019s not the same fate that many others have been subjected to at this point in the industry\u2019s evolution. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of reasons why we think the UK market is important,\u201d Curtis told Dexerto. \u201cTo start, it\u2019s a top 10 market for overall gaming revenue so it\u2019s clearly a huge market for video games. On the UK team organization side, despite having some strong legacy orgs like Excel Esports and Fnatic, we fundamentally believe none of them have done a good job or focused on unlocking that tribal loyalty and the hearts and minds of the fan base in the UK. \u201cThere are different approaches, but we don\u2019t believe their primary motives have been to win over that market and we believe that the market has been starved. London Spitfire is in that same category. They\u2019ve clearly been successful but they haven\u2019t done a lot in the local market to activate.\u201d The aforementioned Manchester United, for example, have managed to outgrow their roots and establish a truly global fan base, not to mention a commercial appeal to match. This is where Guild Esports sees themselves in the future, based in the United Kingdom but not limited by it. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to position ourselves in the way a lot of the franchised leagues have,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe\u2019re not a city-based team \u2014 one of the comparisons we make is with James Bond, he\u2019s clearly a UK brand but wherever you are in the world you know who he is. That\u2019s the approach we\u2019re taking with our brand.\u201d Earlier today, on October 21st, Guild Esports stepped out of its theoretical geographical boundary by signing the Valorant team formerly known as Bonk that is made up entirely of Swedish players. \u201cAre we only going to hire UK-based pros? That\u2019s certainly the first lens that we filter our decision-making process through but let\u2019s face it, the UK market is strong in some esports \u2014 like Call of Duty and FIFA \u2014 but League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, for example, not so great so we have to look elsewhere for top pros,\u201d Curtis told us. \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking to Bonk for months now and they\u2019ve been a top-ranked team since the game came out,\u201d he continued. \u201cOn top of that, they have some of the best personalities in all of esports. We\u2019ve believed in Bonk since day one and every conversation has improved over time, the opportunity with a UK-based team was there but we were already committed and marching to the same vision so we thought this was the right thing to do.\u201d Besides the involvement and ambassador-status of the incredibly-famous David Beckham, Guild Esports stands out as being one of the few esports organizations to go public. After raising \u00a320m ($26.3m) just before their IPO launch, they successfully completed their floatation on the London Stock Exchange at the impressive figure of \u00a341.2m ($54.3m). This was met with mixed reactions by the esports community, many of whom ridiculed the notion that Guild could be valued so highly despite being relatively new and not having the assets of an organization that has been around for years. \u201cIt was strange that a lot of people were questioning how we could be valued at such a price while only having two teams; our prospectus that lays out our business plan mentions four games,\u201d Curtis said. Despite it being an irregular occurrence to go public if you\u2019re a team brand, it certainly has its benefits. Not only does the novelty of it generate headlines and community speculation, but it can provide a lot of capital to make growth happen \u2014 and quickly. \u201cGoing public allows Guild to scale as a company much more quickly than without the IPO process, it enhances our company profile, democratizing the process for fans to participate in our inventory,\u201d he added. \u201cIn our case, you can now afford to buy into Guild if you think it\u2019s a good investment \u2014 that type of opportunity doesn\u2019t exist elsewhere on a major exchange like in London or New York. \u201cIt allows us to recruit, retain, and incentivize our staff, pros, and content creators. Not only can we pay them a base salary, but we can also offer them upside in the company through warrants and that\u2019s a really unique advantage that we have.\u201d The primary reason that people are watching Guild with a close eye, and the fact that mainstream media is giving a rare moment of attention to esports, is the aforementioned inclusion of Beckham. As well as being a minority owner, The Esports Observer read the prospectus and reported that the former professional footballer would be paid almost $20m throughout five years to serve as an ambassador for the organization. This isn\u2019t an everyday occurrence and caught the attention of many, leading to long-lasting conversations, judgement, and further scepticism. \u201cThe odds are stacked against us in every possible way. There\u2019s so much for us to prove, it\u2019s difficult for us to really be at the level we want to be at \u2014 we want to be in the conversation with tier-one organisations quick, in one to two years, with the likes of Cloud9, TSM, and 100 Thieves,\u201d Curtis explained. \u201cThe scepticism is absolutely valid. When I was recruited for this role and I heard we\u2019d have an IPO and would be involving Beckham, it sounded like a hoax to me. I had a very cushy job at Activision Blizzard Esports and we had incredible momentum so when I was approached, I was sceptical myself. It just didn\u2019t make sense.\u201d This soon changed once he met with the co-founders and fully understood what they were looking to achieve with Guild, changing what\u2019s perhaps the normal route of launching an organization and intentionally breaking the mould. \u201cWe\u2019re as authentic as it gets and we have really smart people on our team,\u201d he told Dexerto. \u201cThis isn\u2019t the David Beckham show, he\u2019s not making all of the decisions \u2014 he has a very specific role, he\u2019s an investor and he\u2019s our consumer face of the brand but there are clearly a lot of elements of the company that he can\u2019t fulfil. \u201cOne of the knocks against Beckham was how much we paid him in this commercial deal and it just makes me chuckle because, in the industry, it\u2019s a common narrative that it\u2019s very difficult for esports organizations to make money. Whether the narrative is true or not, that\u2019s the narrative. So when I hear business advice from that community about how we\u2019re spending our money, I just laugh; should I follow a plan that\u2019s not working or try something new?\u201d Having celebrity investors is nothing new in esports. From Post Malone\u2019s recent investment in Envy Gaming to Drake\u2019s industry-rattling involvement with 100 Thieves since October 2018, it\u2019s almost becoming standard to see a giant from the entertainment industry backing a team. \u201cWe\u2019re not unique in that we have a celebrity attached to our organization, but elsewhere it\u2019s been a one-off press release,\u201d Curtis said. \u201cThey invest and then disappear. If you\u2019re going to partner with a celebrity then not leverage their influence then that\u2019s a missed opportunity. He\u2019s an investor but we\u2019re also paying him an influencer fee just like every other organization is doing with their own influencers. \u201cFor us to work with Beckham and not use his influence is ridiculous. He is a door-opener for our company that has just been profoundly positive. The amount of press we\u2019ve gotten has been nuts. He\u2019s got promotional obligations but this type of stuff, you can\u2019t even put a price tag on.\u201d While the interest garnered by Beckham\u2019s co-ownership in Guild will carry them forward for the foreseeable future, it\u2019s perhaps not a sustainable method to build infrastructure and legacy upon. The organization is banking on an academy model, which Curtis believes has been \u201chalf-assed,\u201d to usher in the future of esports and further separate his organization from the pack. \u201cAcademy is not a sexy conversation in esports and we fundamentally believe that\u2019s an opportunity and a huge gaping hole in the industry to fill,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t expect to fix the academy problems that exist in esports on our own; a lot of teams have academies but no league or team has truly committed themselves to the system in a long-term way. \u201cThat \u2018path to pro\u2019 idea is something everybody believes in but nobody is really committed to. This is something we\u2019re absolutely committing to over the next five years. We will have a physical environment in the UK for our academies but we\u2019ll also have a digital product that makes us very unique, it\u2019ll allow anybody in the world to enter our system. We live and play in a digital world but no teams have really invested in their digital products other than a Shopify storefront to sell stuff \u2014 besides Team Liquid. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of development to do with our system and product and you\u2019ll not see it peak for a number of years but that\u2019s how long it takes to really develop and build an academy,\u201d Curtis concluded. \u201cIt\u2019s a long-term investment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guild\u2019s executive chairman on David Beckham\u2019s involvement & future plans Guild EsportsGuild Esports exploded onto the scene just a few months ago, making headlines and receiving criticism along the way. The organization\u2019s executive chairman Carleton Curtis speaks on David Beckham\u2019s involvement, the reception they have received so far, and what\u2019s to come. [jwplayer Yi1e25kP] \u201cOur […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}