The Future of Guild Esports Appears Uncertain

This and other esports and gaming stories for the week ending Aug. 9, 2024.

Aug 09, 2024

UK-based Guild Esports is looking for a buyer in the U.S. Image Credit: Guild Esports

Salutations and happy Friday! First, thank you and welcome to all of the new subscribers and followers of the Fudge Retort. We’re delighted to have you as readers and we hope you enjoy the content we put together for you every week.

In my view, we’re in the dog days of summer, but also nearing the ending of it, and all the pomp and circumstance that goes with it. The Esports World Cup is coming up on the end of its sixth week (just two weeks left), Call of Duty League is done for 2024, and we are coming into some of the biggest esports events of the year as the third quarter rolls in. There’s still a lot to look forward, but as we inch towards the end of the year we’re going to hear a lot more about big changes to League of Legends, Valorant, Counter-Strike 2, and other esports circuits in 2025 and beyond. It is both an exciting and harrowing time for stakeholders and fans, but whatever happens we’ll be here to tell you about those changes—both big and small. But enough looking forward, let’s see what’s going on right now in the world of esports gaming. - James Fudge.

The Big Story: Guild Esports for Sale

The board of directors of London-based, publicly traded esports organization Guild Esports (LSE: GILD) announced this week that it had signed a letter of intent with DCB Sports LLC, which would see DCB Sports acquire 100% of the assets of Guild, which would include “all disclosed liabilities.”

If completed, the transaction would make Guild a privately owned company. Financial terms of the proposed deal were not disclosed publicly.

This week’s announcement seems to indicate that Guild is focused on an outright sale of its assets, as opposed to selling off small amounts of equity to sustain its ongoing operations as it waits for payments owed from various partners. The company announced last week that it was in the midst of a liquidity crisis, with very little cash on hand. The announcement revealed that Guild had a cash position of £25K GBP ($32K USD) as of July 31, and “confirmed liabilities until the end of September 2024” of £1.36M ($1.74M USD), and accounts receivable amounting to £1.52M (roughly $1.95M USD).”

While former pro footballer David Beckham is often mentioned as “a founding shareholder,” he currently only holds a 3.05% stake in the company. Here’s a better breakdown of ownership:

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