The meteoric rise of esports shows no signs of slowing down – imagine on-line tournaments attracting larger audiences than the Wimbledon tennis championship. That is why supporting Guild, the first esports team organisation to list on a major Stock Exchange, exactly suited our highly personal, agile and enterprising approach. Speed was of the essence. The founders of Guild were looking for extremely quick turnaround time as they moved to become a leader in this market. As this was a first for the LSE and a business built from scratch, the listing required careful positioning for the market and for the FCA.
It helped, of course, that David Beckham became a founding shareholder – we advised Guild Esports on the investment and a partnership agreement with David Beckham. The IPO is just the start for Guild, which is set to establish itself as a leading global franchise with its own esports teams competing in major esports tournaments. We continue to move at speed with them on this exciting journey - advising them on everything from IP through to commercial agreements and data protection issues.
