London Spitfire owner Cloud9 and Excel Esports shareholder Guinevere Capital have entered into a strategic partnership.
The aim is to increase London Spitfire’s connection to the UK and Europe, with Guinevere Capital focusing on commercial opportunities and ensuring the success of live Homestand events in 2021.
Guinevere Capital is a sports and esports investment and advisory firm, Guinevere Capital, which invested in Excel Esports back in September 2018.
The partnership centres around Kings Row LLC, a Cloud9 subsidiary which is home of the Overwatch League team London Spitfire and Overwatch Contenders side British Hurricane, and aims ‘to deepen the team’s operational capacity in the UK and Europe’.
North American esports giant Cloud9 secured the London Overwatch League franchise slot back in August 2017 – much to Fnatic’s ire.
Cloud9 still own London Spitfire; Guinevere Capital has just been announced as a strategic partner.
The partnership will start immediately in order to build the foundations for 2021, when the Spitfire anticipate live events will return, in order to connect to the UK community and develop local commercial partnerships.
A press releases stated that the strategic partnership ‘demonstrates Cloud9’s dedication to the UK esports fanbase and commitment to building a best in class business around Spitfire’.
For Guinevere the partnership signifies the opportunity to expand its portfolio into Europe and will now see it support two of the biggest UK esports franchises in London Spitfire and Excel Esports.
Guinevere spans Australia, New Zealand and Europe and is widely known for its investment in British organisation Excel Esports, having supported the team’s successful application into the LEC (League of Legends European Championship) and the creation of Excel’s performance center at Twickenham Stadium.
“My ambition is to help London Spitfire and British Hurricane stand out from the crowd, have their voice heard amongst the community and to gain the attention of brand partners.”
Dave Harris, Guinevere Capital
Guinevere also set up the Esports High Performance Centre in the Sydney Cricket Ground and have plans in the pipeline for a third stadium facility.
Headed up by Dave Harris, who has over eleven years’ experience across traditional sports including football, rugby and cricket, Guinevere will also be joined by Duncan McMonagle, formerly the senior VP and GM of esports for Minute Media.
Duncan’s expertise spans media, marketing and commercialisation of the esports space. His focus will be on partnerships across brands, stakeholders, personalities and community groups.
He joins the Guinevere team alongside Jason Spiller, who has experience building gaming and esports brands and marketing having held roles at Microsoft and OMEN by HP. Jason will build connections with local fans and create regular weekly content for fans across the UK and Europe.
Spitfire players and performance staff will continue to be based in Korea, but the division of resources will ‘help to form a new structure for the organisation to maximise opportunities in 2021’.
London Spitfire made history as the inaugural winners of the first Overwatch League Grand Finals in 2018, while academy side British Hurricane are currently on a winning streak. As part of the new partnership, they will create local events and form partnerships with universities to connect with the community and grassroots scene.
“When Cloud9 made the decision to invest in Overwatch League, we knew taking on live events, marketing, and commercial operations in the UK would be a challenge. When we connected with the team at Guinevere, their backgrounds in traditional sports, media, and esports in Europe, this convinced us that they’d be the right partner to build the business with,” said Dan Fiden, president of Cloud9.
“There is huge potential in the UK esports scene which is still under-developed when you compare it to the rest of the world,” added David Harris, MD of Guinevere Capital.
“For Guinevere, the opportunity to work with London Spitfire will allow us to work across two major British brands, cementing ourselves within the region.”
“My ambition is to help develop the UK and European esports ecosystem and to help organisations such as London Spitfire and British Hurricane, two immensely talented teams, stand out from the crowd, have their voice heard amongst the community and to gain the attention of brand partners.”
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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.
Nice good to see this kind of investment rolling in.
I had no idea Fnatic were going for an Overwatch slot I can see why they would’ve liked that- an Overwatch team representing London and all!