OverActive Media’s Q1 2023: Navigating a $4.18M Setback on the Road to Profitability

Credit: OverActive Media

OverActive Media, a Canadian esports company listed on the TSXV, faced a challenging start to 2023. Despite the company’s esports assets continuing to deliver competitive successes and attracting new sponsors, the revenues and net loss for the first quarter of 2023 worsened on a year-over-year basis.

Operational Highlights

OverActive Media entered into the Valorant esports ecosystem, not only securing an NA Valorant Challengers League spot but also signed its first all-female esports team, MAD Lions Laurë, to compete in Valorant Game Changers.

The company’s Call of Duty League franchise, Toronto Ultra, clinched the Major III Championship, bagging $200.7K USD in prize money.

MAD Lions, OverActive’s League of Legends team, won the LEC 2023 Spring Split Championship, qualifying for the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI 2023) as EMEA’s first seed. At MSI 2023, MAD Lions achieved a 7th position in the tournament, marking the second-best result for an EMEA team.

During this period, OverActive Media also secured new sponsorship agreements with AMD and LG UltraGear and renewed relationships with Scuf Gaming (SCUF) and Nielsen Sports.

Financial Overview

The company’s financials for Q1 2023 showed a decrease in revenue compared to the same period in 2022. Revenues amounted to $1.19M, marking a decrease of $353.5K from the previous year. This decrease was primarily due to timing differences in the recognition of league share revenue and lower sponsorship revenues generated over the course of the first quarter of 2023. Additionally, the absence of live events in the first quarter of 2023 contributed to this decrease.

Operating costs for Q1 2023 amounted to $3.93M, showing a decrease of $534.8K from Q1 2022. This decrease in operating costs is primarily due to a reduction in corporate payroll expenses and effective cost management achieved via reduced travel in 2023. As a result, OverActive Media incurred a net loss of $3.87M during this period.

Editor’s note: A conversation rate of $1 CAD = $0.73335 USD was used for all USD conversions in this article, based on the exchange rate as of May 25, 2023.