Gfinity is an international

esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

company based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England. Founded in 2012, it develops and delivers esports experiences and strategies for game publishers, sports rights holders, commercial partners and media companies. Partnerships have included

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

, the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

, Activision Blizzard,

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...

, BT Sport and

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

. The company is listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...

. Alongside its esports business, Gfinity launched Gfinity Digital Media (GDM) in 2020, which comprises six websites focused on gaming and technology news and features. The Gfinity community has been built over time through online tournaments, professional events and its owned competition platform, the Gfinity Elite Series, which was broadcast through linear and digital channels until 2019. The company launched its first

subscription service The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century, an ...

, Gfinity Plus, in July 2020.

History

Gfinity was founded in 2012 and merged with online league and tournament platform the Warped Gaming League (WGL) in 2013. The company held its first event G1 in July 2013, followed by G2 in October and G3 in August 2014, which included $30,000 ''

Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter video game Media franchise, franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold W ...

'', $7,500 ''

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

'' and $15,000 ''

StarCraft ''StarCraft'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series, set in the beginning of the 26th century, centers on a galactic struggle for dominance am ...

'' tournaments. In February 2015, Gfinity hosted the ''Call of Duty'' European Championships at London's

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...

. The following month, it partnered with cinema chain

Vue Vue or VUE may refer to: Places * Vue, Loire-Atlantique, a commune in France * The Vue, a skyscraper in Charlotte, North Carolina Arts, entertainment and media * Vue (band), a rock and roll band from San Francisco, California * Vue Cinemas, a cin ...

to open the UK's first dedicated esports venue for the inaugural Gfinity Championships, which included tournaments for ''

Hearthstone ''Hearthstone'' is a free-to-play online digital collectible card game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Originally subtitled ''Heroes of Warcraft'', ''Hearthstone'' builds upon the existing lore of the ''Warcraft'' series by u ...

'', ''FIFA'' and '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive''. The event, which included 23 weekly tournaments, attracted over 58 million viewers. In 2016, Gfinity hosted the first

Formula E Formula E, officially the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, is a single-seater motorsport championship for electric cars. The series was conceived in 2011 in Paris by FIA president Jean Todt and Spanish businessman Alejandro Agag, who is ...

Race Off, the '' Halo'' World Championship Tour, the ''

Vainglory Vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant ''futility''. The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic s ...

'' European Winter Championship, the ''Call of Duty'' World League Summer Masters, and many more tournaments. Also in May, the ''

Battlefield 1 ''Battlefield 1'' is a first-person shooter game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. It is the tenth installment in the ''Battlefield'' series and the first main entry in the series since '' Battlefield 4'' in 2013. It was rele ...

'' global reveal event took place at the Gfinity Arena, including the premiere of the game's official trailer. In 2017, it was announced that Gfinity had partnered with American cable television provider

Medicom Chloramphenicol is an antibiotic useful for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections. This includes use as an eye ointment to treat conjunctivitis. By mouth or by injection into a vein, it is used to treat meningitis, plague, cholera, ...

. Later that year, the company was chosen by

as the official tournament partner for the ''

Forza ''Forza'' ( , ; Italian for "force" and "strength") is a series of simulation racing games for Xbox consoles, Microsoft Windows, iOS and Android devices published by Xbox Game Studios. The series seeks to emulate the performance and handling ...

'' Racing Championship. Recent partnerships include

, the

, Abu Dhabi Motorsport Management, Microsoft, Activision Blizzard,

, BT Sport and the

Sky Group Sky Group Limited is a British media conglomerate, media and telecommunications conglomerate, which is a division of Comcast, and headquartered in London. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Ital ...

. In March 2020, Gfinity CEO Graham Wallace and executive chairman Garry Cook stepped down from their roles; they were replaced, respectively, by global brand officer John Clarke and the company's co-founder Neville Upton. The same month, the company was selected to operate the online qualifiers and playoffs for the inaugural ePremier League USA by

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

. In April, Gfinity hosted the ePL Invitational tournament for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

, from which the prize fund was donated to the #PlayersTogether initiative to benefit the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

. The tournament was viewed by over 150 million people across all channels. After signing a multi-year agreement to deliver the F1 Esports Series, Gfinity delivered eight virtual races during the 2020 Formula One season postponement. In May 2020, Gfinity announced the creation of a new

digital media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...

group within the company, Gfinity Digital Media (GDM), headed up by Talal Musa. With its launch, GDM also revealed Gfinity Plus, a digital rewards programme that supports gamer forums and facilitates data collection, which launched in July.

Services

Community building

Utilising its own technological

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

and production processes, Gfinity creates and delivers virtual and online esports programmes and competitions for publishers, sports rights holders, brands and media organisations, including Activision and

2K Games 2K is an American video game publisher based in Novato, California. 2K was founded under Take-Two Interactive in January 2005 through the 2K Games and 2K Sports labels, following Take-Two Interactive's acquisition of Visual Concepts that same m ...

. Since April 2020, the company has delivered the Virtual Grand Prix series and the ePremier League Invitationals, delivering record-breaking figures during the cancellation of many sporting events amid the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The Virtual Grand Prix Series received 30 million views across TV and digital platforms during the lockdown period, whilst the ePremier League Invitational Tournament received over 150 million total video views. Gfinity also partnered with BT Sport to produce the BT Sports FIFA Challenge, and with

Willow TV WILLOW (Willow Cricket, Willow Extra and Willow Canada) is an American pay television sports channel which is completely devoted to airing overseas cricket events, including live and recorded matches and other cricket-related programming in Engl ...

to deliver the eCricket Challenge, a series which saw professional cricketers competing against each other in the video game ''

Cricket 19 ''Cricket 19'' is a 2019 cricket video game developed and published by Big Ant Studios. It is the official video game of the 2019 Ashes series of cricket matches, and the (first) sequel to the 2017 game ''Ashes Cricket''. It was released for Ni ...

''.

Joint ventures/partnerships

Gfinity also partners with organisations to deliver projects across creative, production, game operations, community building and commercial opportunities. In June 2020, Gfinity agreed a five-year partnership with Abu Dhabi Motorsport Management. Together, the two companies created the Global Racing Series, of which the first product is the V10 R League. The new racing championship will feature some of the fastest professional simulation racing drivers with a roster of teams from digital motorsport.

Gfinity Digital Media

Gfinity's media arm operates and owns 10 gaming, hardware and entertainment-based websites
GfinityEsports.comRealSport101.comand the smaller international sites: RealGaming101.esRealGaming101.pt
an
RealGaming101.me

StealthOptional.comEpicstream.com
RacingGames.gg, MTGRocks.com and the latest addition Stockinformer.com / .uk. The sites are monetised through

CPM CPM may refer to: Advertising *Cost per mille, the advertising cost per thousand views *Cost per impression, Cost per thousand impressions, the online advertising equivalent Management *Certified practising marketer, a qualification for Australi ...

(programmatic static and video advertising), CPA (affiliate sales and brand partnerships), site takeovers and social amplification. The company has partnerships in place with Venatus (for ad serving). Gfinity Plus, which launched in July 2020, is a reward-based product used by the company to "gather data and pave the way for the company to offer online social tournament play".

References

External links

Official websiteGfinityEsports.com
{{Authority control Esports organizations Companies based in the City of London British companies established in 2012 Companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market 2012 establishments in England