A new Guild Esports sim racing facility has opened at Guild’s headquarters in Shoreditch, London.
Guild will open its doors to the public through a membership programme, where prospective racers will pay a monthly fee for access to the Guild Esports sim racing setup.
Memberships will be priced at £59.99 per month. This will include two monthly sessions plus access to telemetric data that will show areas for improvement, in what Guild says ‘makes it the perfect environment for young people wanting to build a career as a competitive driver, whether in esports or traditional racing’.
The facility is showcased in a new TV advertising campaign launched by Guild’s Official Premier Partner, Sky Broadband.
The ad features Guild’s co-owner, David Beckham, as well as Guild logos and branding throughout. It launched on November 11th across Sky’s channels including Sky Sports and was first broadcast during a Premier League football match between Newcastle and Bournemouth.
The space will house up to six sim racing rigs and will be used as both a community space and a training facility for Guild’s competitive sim racing team, who compete under the Guild banner in the British Formula 4 Esports Championship. It’s housed at The Sky Guild Gaming Centre.
“The path from sim rigs, to esports, to competitive racing is not an untrodden one, with British sim racer turned British GT Championship racer Jann Mardenborough recently serving as the inspiration for 2023 Sony Pictures blockbuster Gran Turismo,” Guild said in a press release. “Guild is committed to turning this dream into a reality for more aspiring racers, regardless of their background.”
It was in June earlier this year that Guild Esports officially entered sim racing after a £600,000 fundraise. Their drivers are Joona Pankkonen, Brandon Abraham, Remy Gilbert and Ryan Ward, with Gilbert currently sitting in the top five of the British Formula 4 Esports Championship after the fourth race of the season.
Abraham will also be flexing his skills in the new facility at Guild live on TV tonight (November 10th from 7pm-9pm GMT) for Game On! for BBC Children in Need.
“This will be one of the first purpose-built dedicated sim racing training facilities in London, and a huge step-up into the world of sim racing and Formula 1 for those who aren’t able to pay the steep cost of a personal sim racing rig – a barrier for many prospective talented racers.”
Jasmine Skee, Guild CEO, on the Guild Esports sim racing facility
Jasmine Skee, CEO of Guild Esports, said: “We’re proud to officially launch our sim racing facility to the public. Encouraging diversity at all levels of the esports industry is a cornerstone of everything we do at Guild, and we see the opening of our sim racing facility as another step towards that goal.
“It will be one of the first purpose-built dedicated sim racing training facilities in London, and a huge step-up into the world of sim racing and Formula 1 for those who aren’t able to pay the steep cost of a personal sim racing rig – a barrier for many prospective talented racers.”
Four fans will also have the opportunity to win a two-hour racing experience at the Sky Guild Gaming centre, including a coaching session and an opportunity to race on sim rigs as well as a tour of Guild’s HQ and a Q&A session with their sim racing team. There’s more info on that on Guild’s Twitter page.
Interested parties can register their interest in the Guild sim racing membership programme on their website.
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.
