Guild Esports: David Beckham’s listed firm says fan base ‘growing rapidly’ in lockdown

David Beckham’s London-listed gaming firm Guild Esports has said the future looks bright after securing millions in its first sponsorship deal and seeing a “rapidly” growing fan base amid lockdowns.

Esports sees top gamers get paid to play hit games including FIFA and Fortnite in live-streamed competitions garnering millions of viewers.

Guild was incorporated in autumn 2019 and became the first esports franchise to join the London Stock Exchange when it completed a £41 million initial public offering in October.

It is co-owned by Beckham, who is set to receive £13 million from the firm over the next four years as brand ambassador.

The company released results for the year to September 30 on Friday. They show that pre-IPO the firm made a £2.7 million pre-tax loss, which it said reflects "start-up and listing costs”. 

Guild said that as of today it has £18 million in cash in the bank, and that since listing it has “clinched a maiden sponsorship deal with contracted revenues of £3.6million over three years”, while seeing its “fan base growing rapidly”.

The company said that it has a “robust pipeline of potential sponsors with several deals at advanced stages of negotiations”, and is “on track to deliver strong growth in sponsorship revenues and fan base in 2021”.

Executive chairman Carleton Curtis said: “Our growing presence is attracting keen interest from major brands and sponsors as esports becomes a mainstream social and entertainment activity worldwide. 

"As a result, we entered the new year with an excellent new business pipeline and remain on track to deliver significant sponsorship revenues in the current year.”

Beckham is not the only footballer investing in the scene. Gareth Bale owns a team called Elleven Esports, and Dele Alli recently joined UK-based Excel Esports as an ambassador.

Goldman Sachs has tipped the sector to near £2.5 billion in global revenues by 2022.