UK esports organisation Excel Esports has confirmed that Tim Reichert (pictured right) has been appointed as its new esports director.
Tim joins from FC Shalke 04 Esports, where he spent five years overseeing the growth and development of its esports rosters as head of esports.
The news was first broken by Adam Fitch for Dexerto earlier this week, and today Excel has officially announced the appointment.
Excel co-founder Kieran Holmes-Darby still lists his role as co-founder and esports director on his Twitter bio, however Esports News UK reached out to check whether both Kieran and Tim will be esports directors, or if Kieran’s job title will be changing.
Esports News UK received a ‘no comment’ from Kieran, but was told by an Excel spokesperson: “Tim Reichert comes in as esports director effectively managing all our competitive talent and activities and part of Excel’s senior management team. Kieran Holmes-Darby continues to act as co-founder of Excel Esports supporting our expansion and growth.”
While this sounds certain, Esports News UK understands it’s an ongoing, developing situation.
Fellow Excel co-founder and Kieran’s brother, Joel Holmes-Darby, left Excel earlier this year as chief people officer under hushed circumstances, to join Method as its general manager.
Tim entered the esports scene in 1997 after co-founding esports organisation SK Gaming alongside his brothers, Ralf and Benjamin Reichert. Ralf is also of course co-CEO and co-founder of ESL.
Tim then turned to his second passion in life, sports, where he became a professional footballer playing for the likes of Rot-Weiss Oberhausen. After nine years in football, Tim completed a five-year stint as a client consultant at Mediacom & GroupM.
“We are absolutely thrilled to have Tim joining Excel’s senior management team. Whilst Excel Esports is rapidly expanding to become a global force out of Britain, clearly, we need to level up to compete with the world’s best.”
Wouter Sleijffers, Excel Esports
In his most recent role, Tim was head of esports at FC Schalke 04 Esports, a side that pipped Excel to the playoffs post a number of times in the LEC.
As esports director Tim will ‘focus on driving the overall success strategy across all of Excel’s competitive rosters and talent’. This includes ensuring the players mental and physical health, education, data, personal development, living conditions and access to training facilities are at the forefront of importance.
The appointment of Tim follows the recent growth of Excel’s competitive rosters, the expansion of its talent and leadership team as well as a £20m investment round and new office for Excel Esports.
Excel recently completed the biggest FIFA transfer ever, signing UK FIFA player Tom ‘Tom’ Leese.
Tim Reichert, esports director at Excel Esports, commented: “I am excited to be joining the Excel team as the new esports director bringing extensive experience from two top tier esports organisations. Excel’s unique positioning as one of the strongest economies in Europe with its strong management team and support network makes it very well prepared for the future and the opportunities to recruit top tier talent are endless.
“I believe Excel’s leadership team and I share a similar competitive vision and I look forward to ensuring Excel continues to strive forward and develop its players to compete on the biggest stages in the world.”
Wouter Sleijffers, CEO of Excel, added: “We are absolutely thrilled to have Tim joining Excel’s senior management team. Whilst Excel Esports is rapidly expanding to become a global force out of Britain, clearly, we need to level up to compete with the world’s best.
“Tim brings a wealth of experience across both esports and sports industries, and we believe Tim is the perfect person to take us to the global top and support our competitive talent in their careers. With all that Tim has to bring, I look forward to working with him to build on our continued success.”
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.
