UK-based esports, media and tech business Gfinity has announced the launch of Athlos Game Technologies.
Gfinity will provide companies with a tournament-based platform through Athlos that that aims to ‘deepen player engagement, lower player churn and increase average revenue per user’.
Athlos has been set up as a whole new company, which is 100% owned by Gfinity. Founding officers of Athols are Gfinity co-founder Neville Upton, chief revenue officer Thomas Preising, COO Jonathan Hall and head of commercial finance Craig Kingham.
Athlos has also announced the appointment of EA veteran Todd Sitrin as a strategic advisor to the Athlos leadership team. Todd has more than 30 years of experience in games, with 20 of those at EA.
Most recently Todd worked as the senior VP and GM of competitive gaming entertainment at EA, effectively managing EA’s esports operations across games like FIFA, Apex Legends and more.
Athlos will be provided to clients on a recurring annual contract basis. It’s also open to partnerships and a major investor taking control of the business.
Gfinity says the Athlos product ‘builds on Gfinity’s expertise in powering competitive programmes for organisations such as the Premier League and the global esports programme of leading mobile games’.
“Athlos takes the expertise we’ve gained over the past decade in delivering bespoke tournaments through our own tech IP for lots of the world’s largest publishers and sports rights holders.”
John Clarke, Gfinity
Gfinity chairman Neville Upton said: “Athlos Gaming Technologies is aligned with Gfinity’s strategic focus on generating value by owning, scaling and monetising communities and our owned tech IP. In-game, live-service revenues are a key focus of the industry. It amounts to $127bn p.a., more than double the value of up-front game sales revenues.
“Engaged competitive gamers can spend 30 times in game compared to the non-competitive gamer. This is where Athlos delivers by dramatically increasing the number of engaged competitive gamers in any game whether on mobile, PC, or console. The launch of the platform supports our confidence for performing in line with market expectations.”
Neville also said he was delighted to welcome Todd Sitrin to the team as Athlos ‘grows into a product that is built into tens of thousands of games worldwide’.
Gfinity CEO John Clarke added in this interview: “Athlos takes the expertise we’ve gained over the past decade in delivering bespoke tournaments through our own tech IP for lots of the world’s largest publishers and sports rights holders.
“We’re taking a new exciting product with two major differences: Athlos integrates directly into the game which means a better user experience. And all the data being gathered stays within the game and the publisher.
“The plug and play nature of the product means it’s easy to be built into the games in a matter of days, not months or longer.
“The engaged competitive gamer is 50% more likely to spend over $10 in-game than a casual gamer. For a game publisher that can translate into millions of dollars in their bottom line.
“We’re leaning towards an investor coming in and taking a majority stake.”
Earlier this year, Gfinity extended its F1 Esports Series deal as drivers returned to LAN racing, and Gfinity raised more funds and partners with Mobile Streams for a new joint venture.
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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.
