Some of the major creditors owed money by Insomnia Gaming Festival have declined an offer from organisers Player1 Events.
While some smaller creditors (including content creators and freelancers) started receiving what they were owed by Insomnia back in June 2024, several larger entities are still owed money.
Insomnia/Player1 Events parent company Supernova Capital had hoped to offer creditors a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), which, in theory, would’ve provided a greater return to creditors than the previously planned Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation (CVL).
However, several major creditors declined an offer from Player1 Events, which Esports News UK understands was for around just 10% of what they are owed.
These creditors included HMRC, Jagex, Protec European Events Limited, UV&S Event Services Ltd, Fragers, Fie Star Crew Co Ltd, West Berkshire Council and High Viz Media Group Ltd.
Jagex and HMRC are owed the most – some £163,000 and £155,000 respectively.
Just under £4.7m is also owed to intercompany creditors, meaning other Supernova companies, including Supernova Capital LLP, Supernova Capital Two Limited and Supernova Management Limited. These, of course, did not vote against the CVA proposal.
This all came about after Supernova Capital co-founder Paul Wedgwood set aside his own rights as a creditor in a bid to try and get more money to others. According to an email sent to creditors by Novacorp Management Limited, and shared by some sources to Esports News UK, he made donations to ensure smaller creditors were paid outside of the proposed CVA process, and personally injected additional funds after selling personal assets not connected to Player1 Events.
Novacorp Management Limited, a company owned by Paul Wedgwood, also apologised to creditors for the situation, saying they negotiated with HMRC (including offering to share profits with all creditors over several years), but that HMRC refused to reverse its decision.
A virtual meeting will now take place on September 17th 2024 to proceed with the liquidation of Player1 Events.
The news of course comes after mass redundancies were made at Player1 Events back in May, and the Insomnia Gaming Festival company started the liquidation process, with some £8m owed overall.
Community laments loss of Insomnia Gaming Festival during what would’ve been i73
Insomnia73 (aka i73) was previously due to take place this weekend, from September 5th to 8th 2024.
With Player1 Events now entering liquidation and all staff having been made redundant, Insomnia is officially no more.
RuneFest was also supposed to take place alongside i73, and that has now been postponed to next year, with the RuneFest 2025 dates, venue and ticket info being announced a few months ago.
Here’s a selection of tweets made from the UK esports, streaming and gaming community over the past week or so thinking about what would have been i73.
So long and thanks for all the memories, Insomnia. You might be gone, but you certainly won’t be forgotten.
Related article: Esports winners roundup from i72, the last ever Insomnia Gaming Festival
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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.
