Team Liquid have sold their controlling interest to aXiomatic eSports, an ownership group which features an impressive and long list of investors including Magic Johnson, Peter Guber – owner of Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Dodgers and Ted Leonsis – majority owner of Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards. Team Liquid has esports teams in Dota 2, LOL, CS:GO, HotS, Hearthstone, SCII and Overwatch.
Team Liquid have sold their controlling interest to aXiomatic eSports – an ownership group with numerous traditional sports investors and owners as well as other prominent figures in the sporting and entertainment industry.
Included in that list is Magic Johnson, Peter Guber – owner of Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Dodgers and Ted Leonsis – majority owner of Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards/
According to the press release, Steve Arhancet and Victor Goossens will continue as owners and in their respective roles as Co-CEOs of Team Liquid and will also serve as Directors.
I will always be a fan at heart – a gamer who fell in love with League of Legends. I followed that heart and built a team that is now shaping the future of esports, but there are still so many opportunities that we want to explore. With our new ownership group leading the charge, I am certain that we can grow from a premier esports team to a powerhouse sports entertainment franchise.
-Steve Arhancet, Co-CEO Team Liquid
Team Liquid currently has teams and representation in a variety of esports divisions including Dota 2, League of Legends, CS:GO, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, StarCraft II and Overwatch.
The Dota 2 team recently placed 7th-8th at The International 2016, the CS:GO team finished second at ESL One: Cologne in July.
Traditional sports figures and organizations have been making a move into esports. On Monday, the Philadelphia 76ers became the first North American professional sports team to own an esports team when they acquired Team Dignitas.
During the Chinese reshuffle earlier in the month, ViCi Gaming. J introduced honorary captain role for Jeremy Lin – professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets. Jeremy is an avid Dota 2 fan, making appearances at The Internationals and participating in youtube content promoting the game.
In April 2016 Flipsid3 Tactics welcomed a new member to their leadership team – Indianapolis Colts’ Defensive Tackle Ricky Lumpkin.
Last year, Baskonia Atlantis Spanish Basketball organization picked up a Dota 2 squad and merged traditional sports with esports. Professional football teams have been hiring FIFA players and recently Germany’s FC Schalke have acquired League of Legends squads and had hired ex-Dota 2 player and beloved personality/host Jacob “Maelk” Toft-Andersen for their esports division.
aXiomatic eSports group
The investing co-ownership group includes:
- Monumental Sports & Entertainment – One of the largest sports and entertainment companies in the country, Monumental owns and operates professional sports teams such as the NHL’s Washington
- Capitals, NBA’s Washington Wizards, WNBA’s Washington Mystics and the AFL’s Washington Valor
- Magic Johnson – Hall of Fame basketball player and serial entrepreneur
- Steve Case – Chairman & CEO Revolution, Co-Founder of AOL
- Donn Davis – Co-Founder of Revolution and Managing Partner of Revolution Growth
- Dick Glover – Representing Mandalay Sports Media and their current President and CEO, former EVP of ESPN, former CEO Funny or Die.
- Tony Robbins – Entrepreneur, philanthropist, and life & business strategist
- NextVR – Industry leading VR company specializing in live VR sporting events for FOX Sports, NBC Sports, HBO/Golden Boy, etc.
- Alan Shapiro – CEO of Dick Clark productions
- Mike Mahan – President of Dick Clark Productions
- Lon Rosen – EVP, Chief Marketing Officer of the Los Angeles Dodgers
- Tucker Kain – CFO, Los Angeles Dodgers and Managing Director, Guggenheim Baseball
- Rick Welts – President, COO of the Golden State Warriors
- Brandon Schneider – SVP Business Development of the Golden State Warriors
- Kirk Lacob – Assistant General Manager at Golden State Warriors, Co-founder of imoji
- Harry Tsao – General Partner of Juvo Capital, Co-founder of Juvo+
- Paul Schaeffer – Vice Chairman, COO of the Mandalay Entertainment Group
- Jason Sugarman – Founder, Chairman, CEO of Valor Group Holdings
- Blake Byers – General Partner of Google Ventures (GV)
- Chad Byers – Co-founder and General Partner of Susa Ventures
- Mark Scher – Founder, Principal of Scher Investment Group
- Jordan Rambis – VP Development IDW, tech/esports consultant
- Fred Schaufeld – Managing Director SWaN & Legend Venture Partners
- Zachary Leonsis – VP and General Manager of Monumental Sports Network
- Eric Lefkofsky – Co-founder of Groupon, Innerworkings, Echo, Uptake Technologies and Lightbank
- Brad Keywell – Co-founder of Groupon, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Lightbank, CEO of Uptake Technologies.
- Lerner Enterprises – Managing principal owners of the Washington Nationals MLB team, Owners of Lerner Enterprises
- Tom Kartsotis – Founder, CEO of Bedrock Manufacturing (owner of Shinola and Filson), founder of FOSSIL
- Russ Ramsey – Chairman, CEO of Ramsey Asset Management, co-founder of investment firm Friedman, Billings, Ramsey
- Jeong Kim – Chairman of Kiswe Mobile; Former President of Bell Labs
- Mark Ein – Chairman of Kastle System, CEO Capitol Acquisition Corp, Founder and Owner of World TeamTennis franchise the Washington Kastles
- Crane Kenney – President Baseball Operations, Chicago Cubs
- Larry Barden – Chair, Management Committee at Sidley Austin LLP
- Dhani Jones – Entrepreneur; Investor; TV Host; Former NFL Linebacker
- Tony Nader – Managing Director SWaN & Legend Venture Partners
- Paul Strauss – EVP Mandalay Pictures
Leave a Reply