UK-based, publicly-traded esports and gaming services company Gfinity announced Tuesday that it is exiting esports entirely and selling a majority stake, or 72.5% of the company, of wholly-owned subsidiary Athlos to London-based Tourbillon Group UK Ltd. Gfinity will retain the remaining 27.5% shares in Athlos.
According to a filing, Athlos recorded a pretax loss of £500K ($620K USD) on revenue of £400K ($496K) in 2022 (based on an exchange rate of $1.25 USD = £1 as of June 6) .
As for its esports operations, the company said that it is shutting it down due to the sector being “soft” and providing “limited profitable growth opportunities.”
Gfinity Founder and Non-Executive Chairman Neville Upton said that it will now focus on “core web offering for gamers” and get out of the business of “capital intensive businesses of software development and esports events.”
It is unclear as of this writing just how many employees work within Gfinity’s esports operations.
This is an odd move for the company, given that in April it reported revenue growth driven mostly by esports operations. Tobias Seck noted in his reporting in April, that “in its unaudited earnings report for the six-month period ended Dec. 31, 2022, Gfinity highlighted a 26% year-over-year increase in revenues to £4.11M ($5.12M USD)” and that “the company still generated a net loss of £1.77M ($2.21M) and continued its trend of posting a net loss for every reported six-month period since going public in December 2014.”
