GCIGuild signs up second all-female esports team
() investee company () has launched an all-female team to compete in the popular team-based first person shooter video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), marking the company's first entry into the esport and its second all female team to complement its successful VALORANT team, which won the VCT Game Changer EMEA Series 3 in October last year.
This move is part of Guild's strategy to encourage greater female participation in esports and to tap into the growing interest from brand owners, young fans, and players.
The new team is comprised of leading international players signed on one-year deals, and will compete in the ESL Impact Circuit and the ESEA Open, with the aim of being promoted to the Intermediate Division by the end of the year. Launched in 2012, CS:GO notched up 450m hours watched in 2022, up 8.8% over the year.
The CS:GO team complements the company's existing teams competing in FIFA, Fortnite, Rocket League, and VALORANT
Jasmine Skee, CEO of Guild Esports, commented: "This International Women's Day, we're delighted to launch a high-flying, all-female team to spearhead our entry into the CS:GO arena. With female participation rapidly growing in many other competitive sports such as football and rugby, we feel this is the right time for us to recruit top talent for CS:GO.”
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Guild continues to gather momentum with this latest initiative, which will help the company grow its audiences by attracting new demographics and opening up multiple new revenue streams in the long term.
The company is already enjoying success on that front, having signed several large sponsorship contracts with major brands in the past year, including Samsung, Coca-Cola, PlayStation, Bitstamp, Razer, and Sky UK. The Bitstamp deal was worth £4.5m, and the recent major contract with Sky exceeded that figure. The company boasted total signed sponsorship revenue of £14.6m on 30 September 2022, having signed £10.7m of new deals last year.
According to Newzoo, there are now more than 2.7 billion gamers globally, with gaming overtaking social media as the largest consumption of screen time in most developed markets. By 2023, Newzoo predicts the gaming market will be worth US$200.8 billion a year, with the number of players worldwide surpassing the three-billion mark.
With rapidly growing revenues, a growing pipeline of sponsorship deals, and a strong cash position, Guild Esports and Blue Star – which owns 2% of Guild alongside a 13% stake in SaaS gaming platform Dynasty Media & Gaming worth £5.6m - are well-positioned to continue benefiting from esports' momentum.
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