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US-based sports investment firm DCB Sports LLC has acquired UK esports organisation Guild Esports for a cash payment of £100,000.
The company has acquired 100% of Guild’s assets and assumed all disclosed liabilities of the esports org, ‘which stand in excess of £2m’.
DCB Sports will assume and run the Guild brand through a new entity, Guild Esports and Gaming Ltd, ‘and will be responsible for providing the necessary future working capital to allow the business to operate from a stable financial platform, and further develop its existing partnerships with studios and creatives domestically and abroad’.
Update: As of November, Guild have changed their public-facing brand name on socials from Guild Esports to Guild Gaming.
Update: As of late January 2025, the company has formally changed its name from Guild Esports Plc to Cassell Capital Plc at Companies House, and the trading name has changed from GILD to CASS on the London Stock Exchange.
The Company’s website has also changed to: https://casselplc.com.
The £100,000 cash payment will be used as working capital for Guild Esports PLC while the directors review and consider the next steps for the company.
Guild CEO Jasmine Skee has taken the decision to resign from the company and step down from the board of directors with immediate effect to pursue new opportunities.
The Guild board will now consist of Derek Lew and Brian Stockbridge as non-executive directors.
“The board sincerely thanks Ms Skee for her significant contributions and strategic leadership of the company under difficult conditions, and in particular, her efforts in completing the transaction,” Guild said in an update today.
“The board of directors believe [the acquisition] is the best course of action available for the company given its current financial position and the anticipated future capital needs of the business.”
Guild Esports
“The transaction also provides certainty to the company’s staff, customers and suppliers which have been integral to the development of the Guild brand and business.”
Guild also said the board has resolved to change the name of the company to Cassel Capital PLC to avoid confusion with Guild Esports and Gaming Ltd following completion.
The news comes after the Guild Esports board said earlier this summer it was ‘reviewing the strategic direction of the company’ and considering selling assets or being acquired, despite a cost-cutting programme which saw costs fall 38% year on year, and following Guild cutting £3.5m of costs between 2022 and 2023.
Guild also posted a loss before tax of £1.8m for the six months ending March 31st 2024.
On August 5th 2024, the directors of Guild Esports signed a letter of intent to be acquired by DCB Sports LLC.
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.
