Gfinity PLC World-renowned esports team to join Elite Series (5759Z)

TIDMGFIN

RNS Number : 5759Z

Gfinity PLC

18 December 2017

Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement that contains inside information according to REGULATION (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR)

Gfinity plc

("Gfinity" or the "Company")

World-renowned esports franchise to compete for the first time in Elite Series

Team Fnatic is first new franchise to be announced for third season of the esports tournament taking place in March 2018 with a prize pool in excess of GBP250,000

Gfinity plc (AIM: GFIN), a leading international esports entertainment group, announces that world-renowned esports franchise, Fnatic, will join the highly popular Gfinity Elite Series season three, which is due to commence in March 2018.

Fnatic is a professional esports organisation headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and has established itself as one of the leading franchises in global esports with teams competing in over 20 global competitions each year. Founded on 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world, across a variety of games, such as FIFA, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends and Dota 2. Earlier in 2017, Fnatic signed an exclusive partnership with Italian football club, AS Roma.

Fnatic, which has been a huge part of the esports revolution with its teams winning more than $8 million in prize money, is the first new team to be announced as part of Gfinity's Elite Series expansion which sees the number of teams increase from eight to ten. Gfinity recently added EA SPORTS FIFA 18 to the line-up of titles, joining Rocket League and Street Fighter V, and teams will compete for a prize pool in excess of GBP250,000.

Prior to Fnatic's opening FIFA 18 match, amateur players from around the world are invited to sign up for free to compete in the Challenger Series to earn a place in the Elite Draft. After six weeks of online competition, the top 40 players will enter the draft in the hope of being selected by one of the 10 teams with each drafting two players to become part of their active roster. The teams will compete in a six-week regular season in a bid to make the play-offs which will be played over a two-week period from the Gfinity Esports Arena in London.

Neville Upton, Chief Executive of Gfinity, said: "Having established the Elite Series as one of the leading esports tournaments in the world, we couldn't be more excited by expanding and bringing in a team of Fnatic's calibre.

"With their inclusion, an already competitive roster and more announcements to come, this will be our most action-packed season to date."

Patrik Sattermon, CGO and Co-Owner, Fnatic, said: "We have followed the Elite Series closely for some time and have been thoroughly impressed, in terms of the tournament but also in both the professionalism and vision of Gfinity's team.

The new opportunities for our existing FIFA and Rocket League rosters are very exciting and a return to the fighting game scene with Street Fighter V is something we very much look forward to."

Enquiries:

 
 Gfinity plc                              www.gfinityplc.com 
 Neville Upton, Chief Executive              Via Walbrook PR 
  Officer 
 
 Allenby Capital Limited - AIM              Tel. [phone] 
  Nominated Adviser and Broker                          5656 
 Jeremy Porter / John Depasquale 
  / James Thomas 
 
 Walbrook PR (Media & Investor                Tel: +44 (0)20 
  Relations)                                       7933 8780 
 Paul Cornelius /Sam Allen         or [e-mail] 
 

About Gfinity

Founded in 2012, Gfinity has established itself as one of the world's leading esports companies. The London-based business enjoys strong relationships with game publishers, players and the wider esports community and has built a solid reputation for delivering high quality competitions, both on-line at www.gfinityesports.com and off-line, in addition to producing industry leading esports broadcasts.

The Gfinity Esports Arena at Fulham Broadway, London is the home of UK esports showcasing regular tournaments across the full range of competitive games. Beyond its own tournaments Gfinity provides a full turnkey solution for brands wanting to create their own esports tournaments and has staged premium esports events around the globe for leading publishers and brands including Formula 1, Microsoft, Activision, EA, Xbox, Gillette and HP.

Gfinity Elite Series Season 2 highlights:

-- Gfinity received over 5 million live views and over 9 million in total which was an increase of 51% and 86% respectively

   --     Total engagement on Facebook was in excess of 1.1 million 
   --     Average viewing time on Twitch increased by 20% 

Gfinity is an accredited official EA SPORTS(TM) FIFA 18 Global Series qualifier as EA brings competitive FIFA to millions of fans around the world through the EA SPORTS FIFA 18 Global Series on The Road to the FIFA eWorld Cup 2018 in August 2018.

For more details on the entire EA SPORTS FIFA 18 Global Series, please visit www.FUTChampions.com

For more information about the Challenger season, which is free and open to everyone, please visit https://challenger.gfinityesports.com/

About FNATIC

Fnatic is a leading, global esports organization with professional teams in the most popular games such as League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Dota 2, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm and more. Since being founded in 2004 by Sam Mathews, Fnatic teams have collected numerous honors including winning the first ever LCS World Championship and winning three CS:GO Majors, in addition to other major gaming titles. In 2015, Fnatic launched Fnatic Gear, the hardware line of gaming peripherals. The organization launched the first ever esports concept store, BUNKR, dedicated to all things esports in 2016.

Fnatic is headquartered in London, United Kingdom with additional offices and gaming houses in Berlin, Belgrade, Los Angeles and Kuala Lumpur. For more information about Fnatic, visit www.fnatic.com.

About esports

Esports (electronic sports) is watching or playing competitive video gaming. Leading titles include League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Defence of the Ancients 2 (DotA 2), Call of Duty and Rocket League. The industry is growing rapidly, with new communities developing around more and more titles. The global esports market generated US$493 million of revenue in 2016 and is expected to make $1.5 billion by 2020. The global esports audience in 2017 was 191 million people, 80% under the age of 35 and 70% male (source: Newzoo). Online streaming channels Twitch and YouTube command the biggest audiences, although esports events are also now being broadcast on conventional TV. The 2015 League of Legends Championships finals in Berlin were watched by 36 million people, with a peak concurrent viewership of 14 million viewers, while at DotA 2's flagship annual championship 'The International 2016' competitors from around the world competed for a prize pot of over $20 million.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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December 18, 2017 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)