Play Crazy Game Trusted Gaming News Portal
Team Heretics breaks records. The eSports club aims for revenue of more than ten million euros in 2023, which will represent more than doubling the turnover of 2022, which has been between 4.5 million euros and five million euros. This result will come after buying Misfits Gaming’s place in July at the League of Legends European Championship (LEC). In 2021, the income was three million euros.
“It has been a year of efforts in which we have devoted ourselves to carrying out a capital increase to enter the LEC, as well as to increase our business and open offices in Berlin and Madrid”, explains Antonio Catena, founder and CEO of Team Heretics, to Palco23. The offices in Madrid have a thousand square meters.
The club, which is still closing its accounts, estimates that it will close with a positive gross operating result (ebitda), although the net result could be negative, due to the investment made. This would be the first time it would happen after seven years of operations. “It has not been a good year because we expected to grow more, but it has been a general trend throughout the sector,” says the manager.
Team Heretics will close with a positive gross operating result (ebitda)
The round of financing required for the acquisition of the franchise was the highest obtained by any eSports club in Spain. This was thanks to the club’s current members, including investment funds such as Sevenzonic Capital (led by Angel Cano, former CEO of Bbva, or Javier Rodriguez, former CEO of Google) or Omega Capital (the fund of investment of Alicia Koplowitz), as well as other partners whose names have not been disclosed. It is estimated that the price of a place in the LEC is between 30 million and 35 million euros.
Secondly, the club has appointed Borja De Altolaguirre as commercial director. The manager has assumed the position after being a consultant for global sponsorship development for Paris Saint Germain and after almost seven years in the NBA, where he spent two years as director of sponsorship for the competition in Latin America. He previously worked at ESL and Konami. This signing is part of the restructuring of the eSports commercial department.
The club will continue to focus on its internationalization in 2023
Looking ahead to 2023, the club will continue to focus on internationalization, which will lead to an increase in business thanks to the income from having entered a franchised league. In fact, this course will also compete in the new international league of Valorant. “We have opened new channels in English and we want to boost sponsorship throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa,” says the manager. The company, counting sports staff, has one hundred employees.
In this way, a part of the income will come from B2B, which includes sponsorship and activations; of eSports; the sale of players, prizes and audiovisual rights, and B2C, which includes merchandising, licensing, hubs and events. In fact, in recent years the company has opened hubs in the XMadrid shopping centers and in the Islazul shopping center. In fact, as the manager explains, “the podcast we do has brought us almost six-figure income,” he says.
On the other hand, last year, the club reached an agreement with Antai Venture Capital, to enter the first global fund of stocking for equity launched by the venture capital manager, which articulates its investments in start-up companies through advertising assets on social networks and digital platforms.
Team Heretics began its career in 2016 with Catena, Arnau Vidal and Jorge Orejudo Goorgo, who remain as majority shareholders of the team. The club came from the beginning youtuber David Casaonvas The Grefg, as a content creator along with Goorgo to promote the project. After the various rounds carried out, the founders still maintain the majority shareholding of the entity, as well as control of the board of directors. Sportingly, in 2022 to frame, the club was proclaimed Fifa world champion, won the Super League Summer Split and was proclaimed champion of the Valorant Crossfire Cup.
