David Beckham has been announced as the co-owner of a London based Esports business, Guild Esports. Guild Esports is a talent development agency. It is going to be headquartered in London, but hoping to have a global reach to their efforts. Guild Esports will be operating on a traditional academy model to develop the skills of Esports talent. They will be searching out talented players in a number of games and coaching them to achieve new heights.
© Guild Esports
Guild Esports are going to find and identify the most skilled young players. They’ll use scouts to find these players out, just like the academy model in traditional sports. Then they’ll take these players through coaching and nurture them by industry figures. This is a strategy to develop Esports talent in different sections of society and find the skilled players that the current model is missing.
Guild Esports is going to be looking for players in FIFA, Fortnite, and Rocket League. These are three huge games with great potential for finding players worth nurturing. The roster of titles will probably expand as the company does though.
David Beckham is an investor in the company and co-owner, this is what he said about his involvement in the project:
“Throughout my career I’ve been lucky enough to work with players at the top of their game, and I’ve seen first-hand the passion and dedication it takes to play at that level. I know that determination lives in our Esports athletes today and at Guild we have a vision to set a new standard, supporting these players into the future. We are committed to nurturing and encouraging youth talent through our academy systems and I am looking forward to helping our Guild Esports team grow.”
Beckham is just an investor. However, his experience in the academy model of finding football talent is likely a contributing factor here. This model has worked great for traditional sports in the past.
© Andrea Raffin / Shutterstock.com
The executive chairman explained the relationship.
“The meteoric rise of Esports shows no signs of slowing down, and this is the perfect moment for Guild Esports to enter this exciting market.
We have built an experienced management team and I am proud to have David Beckham as co-owner in this venture as his professionalism and deep experience of developing high-functioning sports teams align with our core strategy of building the best in class Esports teams. At Guilt Esports, David will be instrumental in helping shape the coaching program implemented at our academies and we welcome his valuable mentoring as well as the inspiration he gives the younger generation of athletes. Esports is already one of the most popular spectator sports on Earth and will continue to grow globally as excitement, accessibility, and knowledge of the sector soars. Guild looks forwards to playing a big role in the future of this gaming community.”
Guild is one of a number of new companies entering the Esports space. With the area constantly growing, it is an attractive proposal. Additionally, David Beckham isn’t the only big name to invest in Esports either. Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal have all invested large sums too. Esports is a growing market, and this confidence in it reflects that.
Read next: Find the best 2020 esports stocks to invest in
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