Damian Mathews Resigns From Esports Entertainment Group

Credit: EEG

Esports Entertainment Group Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Damian Mathews tendered his resignation on Monday. Mathews had only been in the role for eight months he was been promoted to the double role in June of 2022,  just three months after joining the company as CFO. The publicly-traded company (NASDAQ: GMBL) did not indicate whether this particular resignation was initiated by the board or Mathews, but he will remain on the its board as a director.

Michael Villani, who joined the company in February of 2021 as financial controller, has been named interim chief financial officer (until, we assume, the company can find a suitable replacement).

Mathews joins former EEG CEO Grant Johnson, who was removed from his position and board seat by the company’s board of directors in December. At the time, Johnson said on social media: “A sad farewell, December 3rd was a sad day for me, as everyone now knows, I have been removed from EEG by the BOD. It was decided last Saturday, when it was felt I was uncooperative in some objectives of the BOD, to dismiss me so here I am on the outside looking in. Putting my deep disappointment aside I would prefer to focus on the positive elements.” He was at the company for more than eight years in the top executive role.

The company announced on Jan. 5 that Johnson’s replacement would be Alex Igelman, who also operates a number of other companies including FairP2P, Esports Capital Group, and Spectrum Esports Advisors.

EEG struggled in the fourth quarter of 2022 with trading above $1.00 USD on the Nasdaq-a requirement. That ultimately led to the company being given a warning from the exchange. EEG asked for a stay from the Nasdaq Hearings Panel, which was granted in early December. Now the company must find a way to come back into compliance by Feb. 7, by trading above $1 for 30 days and having a minimum of $2.5M of stockholder equity by March 31. EEG is currently at $0.076 in after hours trading.