Gfinity Esports Australia will cease operations from the end of November, some two and a half years after opening.
Major shareholders of Gfinity Esports Australia, media company HT&E Limited and Gfinity PLC announced the business will close.
Gfinity said that the esports market in Australia has not developed to the level forecast when the company was launched in 2017, despite the building of a custom esports arena in Australia in partnership with Hoyts, the launch of the Gfinity Elite Series Australia and record Australian esports sponsorship revenue.
The news comes after Gfinity stopped running its Challenger Series and Elite Series tournaments in the UK in favour of third-party competitions such as the F1 Esports Series and FIFA tournaments.
Previously, Gfinity apparently had plans for an international ‘World Series’, but it seems those plans may have now been scrapped, or at least put on hold.
Gfinity Esports Australia is a joint venture set up in conjunction with Gfinity and HT&E Events. Gfinity entered into a five-year agreement to license the Gfinity Elite Series to Gfinity Esports Australia, in return for an annual license fee.
Gfinity reportedly owned 30% of Gfinity Esports Australia.
“We would like to thank all our stakeholders and the Australian esports community for their support over the last few years. This is a very difficult announcement for all our staff.”
Dominic Remond, Gfinity Esports Australia
Ciaran Davis, Chief Executive of HT&E, said: “Esports remains an exciting industry with
significant global interest and activity and HT&E believes it will become a mainstream and
significant content-audience-commercial medium in the long term.
“But our absolute focus is on our core radio business and the economics of esports in the Australian market are yet to deliver sustainable, positive earnings. It is critical our investments deliver value for shareholders and with esports there is no certainty on when a positive contribution might be achieved.”
Garry Cook, Executive Chairman at Gfinity plc, who joined last year, added: “The decision to close the business was not taken lightly.
“Our team and all key stakeholders are all pioneers in building a market leading, competitive gaming operation in Australia and I would like to thank them for their commitment and dedication.”
Dominic Remond, Chief Executive Officer of Gfinity Esports Australia, commented: “We would like to thank all our stakeholders and the Australian esports community for their support over the last few years. This is a very difficult announcement for all our staff.
“We will continue to meet our obligations to our existing partners, including Supercars with the upcoming Gfinity Supercars Eseries, and deliver outstanding events until we close later this year.”
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
