The Esports Insider Super Forum is set to take place on March 22nd, featuring a variety of panels, roundtables and a keynote covering esports, traditional sports, and everything in between.
One of these panels focuses on the ownership of esports teams, and whether the investment is a worthy one. With multiple sporting stakeholders buying stakes in esports organisations in the last year, and even more that have grown from the ground up, our speakers will discuss how worthy the investment is, along with their own experiences of team ownership. 
Our speakers include:
- Team Vitality – CEO – Nicolas Maurer
- exceL Esports – Managing Director – Kieran Holmes-Darby
- Co-founder – Code Red Agency – Ben Woodward
- In the moderator’s seat will be none other than renowned esports journalist Mike Stubbs.
As mentioned, many sports teams, leagues, personalities and stakeholders have put their money down in the esports industry; a number of NBA and MLS teams are currently seeking out representatives for their respective esports aims, whilst football sees teams involved to varying degrees such as Paris Saint Germain, FC Copenhagen (via North), West Ham United and FC Schalke hosting teams in titles such as FIFA, CS:GO, League of Legends and more.
We’ve also seen recent announcements from the likes of the NHL, whilst the NFL is also involved via Madden, and the likes of Formula 1 have their sights set on the space.
On the other end of the scale, many lower-tier organisations have been facing the struggles synonymous with those of start-ups, especially in such a niche industry; the number of start-up organisations that have folded prematurely is testament not only to the allure of esports but also how difficult it can be to see success.
As well as this, we have five other panels looking at topics such as media rights and broadcasting in esports and the importance, and intricacies, of sponsorship in the industry. With a range of speakers discussing the merging of esports and sports, and representatives from an array of sporting teams in attendance, this panel could mark the first step for many of the biggest names in football and the wider sporting world in to esports.
Other speakers across the event include: RFRSH Co-Founder and EVP Sales Jakob Lund Christensen, Colin Johnson Head of FIFA, Rocket League and Street Fighter at Fnatic and AS Roma; Christian Sorensen, CEO of North, Michael ‘Odee’ O’Dell, Gm at Dignitas and Heather ‘Naysayerz’ Dower, Communications and Marketing Manager at ESL UK.
Let’s not forget that we also have Ballon d’Or winner Ruud Gullit making a keynote speech discussing how and why he ended up creating his FIFA esports academy, Team Gullit. With such an experienced lineup, we expect the ESI Super Forum to be the perfect industry event to share our speakers’ (and our own) immense wealth of knowledge and provide a networking opportunity for the multitudes that will descend on Stamford Bridge on March 22nd.
You can buy your tickets for the ESI Super Forum, as well as view the full agenda and notable attendees, here.
Partners include AliQuantum Gaming, Abios, Sportradar, Squire Patton Boggs, Qwatti eSports Agency, ESL UK, RewardMob and SpecialEffect