UK esports organisation Excel Esports has doubled the size of its commercial team with several new hires.
New members of the team include commercial director Mark Carter, commercial analyst Elle Garner, partnerships manager Jordan Bedford and partnerships executive Owen Betteridge.
Excel has doubled its commercial team over the last three months as it looks for ‘accelerated growth’ over the next 18 months.
Leaning on its Power of Better ethos and its core pillars of sustainability, inclusion and learning, Excel has seen its commercial pipeline rapidly grow.
Mark has more than 15 years’ experience establishing partnerships in international markets for brands such as UEFA and Visa. He joins Excel as commercial director.
He said: “Since joining Excel I have been focused on working alongside the team to develop big and bold propositions which deliver substantial ROI to both our existing and new partners. These propositions are groundbreaking and have provided a springboard for Excel to enter new markets as we seek to expand our UK and international presence.
“I am proud to share that alongside the growth of the commercial team our pipeline has increased by 300% over the last four months and continues to grow at a strong rate.”
Excel’s new partnerships manager Jordan Bedford has more than three years’ experience in business development and sales, and will help grow and maintain Excel’s commercial portfolio in his new role.
Elle Garner has joined Excel from Bristol Student Union, where she was responsible for managing commercial media sales and advertising opportunities. Elle will help Excel to interpret data to help with key business concepts and decision making.
As the newest member of the team, partnerships executive Owen Betteridge brings strong sports partnership experience, having worked at Human Race managing partners and sponsors across its portfolio of mass participation events.
The team expansion coincides with Excel’s recent £17m funding round announcement, which will see the brand develop commercial propositions for its partners in the UK and international markets and open a new office in Shoreditch, London.
In the last six months Excel has attracted partners such as Chupa Chups, Sony, Beyond NRG and AndaSeat.
Other hires by Excel include people and culture manager Abi Odell and Oskar Sisi as creative director.
On the esports front, academy side BT Excel recently misssed out on reaching the NLC final and EU Masters, and in the Spring 2021 LEC Excel missed out on the playoffs again with their first team.
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.
