- Game Digital plans to open 35 Belong “gaming arenas” by the end of the financial year
- The retailer’s chief executive Martyn Gibbs told The Daily Telegraph today: “Our focus on bringing grassroots eSports to the UK and Spain will remain a massive priority for us.
Game Digital is betting on eSports as it bids to restore profitability, with plans to open 35 of its Belong in-store “gaming arenas” by the end of next year and 100 or more in the longer term.
The retailer’s chief executive Martyn Gibbs told The Daily Telegraph today: “Our focus on bringing grassroots eSports to the UK and Spain will remain a massive priority for us.
“The growth in eSports viewership [and participation] is significant, and I think we’re really well-placed to capitalise on that.”
Britain’s biggest videogames retailer has struggled to maintain market share and profits since going into administration in 2012. It relisted on the stock exchange in 2014 but its shares slumped as low as 19.3p earlier this year, from highs of 335p in 2015.
eSports have become big business of late, with some top competitors filling arenas and taking home millions of dollars of prize money
Game has been heavily reliant on the so-called “console cycleâ€, with hardware sales peaking as the industry’s big players Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo release new iterations every six-to-eight years.
Mr Gibbs said the company’s emerging non-retail business could reduce that “cyclicality†in the future.
Game’s events, eSports and digital revenues more than doubled to £13.2m in the 52 weeks to July 29, it revealed today, though that still represents just 1.7pc of its total group sales.
The retailer’s Belong arenas are based on a similar concept in South Korea, where gamers can visit any of 10,000 “PC bangs†and pay by the hour to play on top-spec PCs and the latest consoles.
It has opened 18 so far since summer 2016, and customers racked up 89,000 hours of gaming in the first quarter of the company’s current financial year.
Mr Gibbs was speaking after Game revealed a pre-tax loss of £10m for last year, down from a £1.1m profit previously.
Group sales were down 3.6pc to £782.9m, despite booming sales of the new Nintendo Switch console, which boosted revenues towards the end of the year.
“We had a tough first half to 2016/17 but market dynamics improved significantly in the second half,†Mr Gibbs said.
Gross transaction values in its core retail division grew 5.4pc in the first 15 weeks of this financial year, he added.
Game Digital’s shares were down 5.3pc to 38p in afternoon trading.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/11/15/game-digital-bets-esports-plans-100-gaming-arenas/
Tags: Activision Blizzard, eGambling, egaming, esports