A set-back for Kinguin! The online videogame store stopped many of its sponsoring partnerships with professional esport teams. According to Richard Lewis (journalist for dailydot.com) this sudden stop is the consequence of internal restructuring.
Established in 2013, Kinguin made a sensational start in electronic sport. The online store started sponsoring some of the biggest teams like Fnatic, Team SoloMid, Copenhagen Wolves etc… In May 2015, Kinguin launched its own team on Counter Strike Global Offensive and Heroes of the Storm. Two professional and very competitive teams.
With this kind of significant investment, plenty of observers assumed that Kinguin would become a sustainable and strong actor in the world of electronic sport. But this strategy has a cost and it seems too important for Kinguin.
This restructuring will cause Viktor Wanli to lose his chair as CEO. He is replaced by Adam Gouda. Giovanni Varriale, head of esport, is also replaced by Adam Davis, former trade relations director. These changes are associated with a new strategy: « to make benefits » according to dailydot’s source.
Kinguin already stopped sponsoring teams such as Fnatic. The speed at which the club has reacted to this is quite impressive as the penguin logo had already disappeared from the website as well as the player’s jerseys. Fnatic didn’t make any statement.
What future for Kinguin’s teams? Dailydot states that they are trying to sell both of them and would have started negotiations with several organizations such as Origen or Winterfox. Well known of the call of duty community, the huge structure that is Faze could be interested. Have the ESL One in Cologne and the impressive results of skin revenue ($4.2 million dollars for the team) changed their minds, or just made the price harder to negotiate.
Translation – James Berry
