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Last month the inaugural Esports Breakfast Club took place at London’s Guild Esports and Gaming London HQ, courtesy of Drive Lounge and agency Get In.
The event provided networking, sim racing tech, food and drink, and a Q&A panel, titled, ‘Is UK esports taken seriously in 2025, and what more can we do?’ featuring Esports Insider Co-Founder Sam Cooke, Blast Sponsorship Manager Becky Wright, Team Falcons Global Director of Esports Grant Rousseau and ELO Studio & Ventures Co-Founder Wouter Sleijffers. Here are some of the highlights.
Paul Bolton, CEO and Co-Founder of Drive Lounge, opened proceedings, and spoke about Drive Lounge’s plans to open ten venues around the country, following their Norwich and London spaces.
“We also want to create an opportunity at the grassroots level for aspiring sim racers to train and be with other pros,” he said, also encouraging more people to host events at the Guild HQ. “And we’re here now, we’d love to use this space more and more [in UK esports], and create a hub for people to come together, do more of these events and support the whole ecosystem.”
Esports Insider Co-Founder Sam Cooke then took the mic, asking about the current state of UK esports, whether we made the most of all the events taking place here in 2024, and what more could be done.
Grant Rousseau said:
“I think there are things we’re really good at, and things we’re really really poor at. I think there’s a lot of aspects of the commercial side, publishers building games themselves, on-air talent, these are things we’re very good at. We had a ton of esports events last year which is a really good sign, and we’re slowly starting to see some moves from councils and even Government.”
Grant Rousseau, Team Falcons
“The Mayor of London [promoted Worlds 2024], Solihull Council [with the RLCS Birmingham Major] that shows there is a movement from people outside of esports who are starting to take this seriously.
“It’s a little bit slow, but nonetheless, I think there are steps now that are showing we’re finally starting to get there. It was a shame with all the events last year that there seemed to be a lack of a response from the non-endemic market and the Government, and the support to the economy esports can bring.
“One example for me is very simply visas, I always believed we were in a tougher space in a post-Brexit world, where organisers can ask, ‘why host an event in the UK where we have to get visas when we can just do something else in Europe. I was hoping the Government would do something here but that conversation just hasn’t happened.
“Tax codes could also be improved. And our competitive performance and UK esports player talent [could be improved compared to other countries, like France and Karmine Corp for example]. But as I said, we have seen some positives [with councils and the London Mayor getting involved].”
Becky Wright added: “When it comes to UK events, I think businesses and sponsors can still struggle to [understand] why they should invest in esports from a partnerships/sponsors point of view. I think that is changing over time, but it’s quite often equated to sponsoring traditional sports or esports, it’s rarely both I would say. But I think we’re seeing some good names sponsor our events, for example last year we had Revolut take headline sponsorship of the Blast Premier Spring Finals 2024.
“I would like to see more of a buy-in [into esports] from our media. Whilst we have had a lot of coverage around events, it’s few and far between, amd better coverage can help sponsors fund events. We still see mainstream coverage focusing on, ‘did you know, people watch other people play video games?!’”
Becky Wright, Blast
“But I think for a small country with a small population, the UK has done really well. I think we really strengthened our position, with a decent amount of events not just in London but around the UK, we had events in Birmingham (ESL One Dota) and Manchester (Rainbow Six Siege), showing we have these places outside of London is really important. And we have a strong, passionate esports community here, which we should be proud of. So we’re getting there.”
Wouter Sleijffers commented: “I think after all these years, things are definitely very different now. It’s more challenging. We speak about UK sports, but I’d like to think that gaming and esports is more of a language market than defined by country borders. I think that has its pros and cons, we’ve had some amazing events and sponsors do have an interest in that. At Excel, the Britishness of Excel Esports was at the forefront, and we had sponsors like BT/EE/HSBC, JD Sports etc.
“In the pitch for BT, they had other options. But they saw Excel more of a UK team. BT also have an international appeal and awareness, and I think [the brand interest] is very positive. Where the challenge comes in is we were pitching on Britishness, but we lost out where we were competing against international language as a fanbase. The events are good, and our casters and talent – look at how successful Caedrel is – but sometimes if we think a little bit more about our product market fit, we could do a lot better.
“London & Partners have provided support in esports as well, but I think sometimes what’s lacking [from the UK Government/councils] is consistency and persistence to actually drive that forward.
“It doesn’t have to be grandiose and London & Partners saying we want London ‘to be the esports capital of the world’, but how can you develop something that persistently builds on something? You look back on it and it’s a bit of a pity that initiative has not really continued to be built upon. The will is still there, but we could put a bit more effort into it. So let’s continue the effort.”
Wouter also called for greater unity in UK esports.
“We’ve got to be more together. Sometimes when you sit together you come up with a lot of ideas and may collaborate on something that otherwise would not have happened,” he said.
How can UK esports be more sustainable?
Esports News UK’s Dom Sacco asked the panel: Following the closure of entities like Player1 Events (Insomnia Gaming Festival, pictured above), Into the Breach and more around the so-called ‘esports winter‘, things seem to feel very fleeting in UK esports, with mismanagement still causing issues. Why do you think this is, and how can we be more sustainable?
“I’m in a similar mindset,” Grant answered. “It’s a really tough conversation. Esports doesn’t get as much of a look-in when it comes to the fandom of sports. In esports and gaming, how much of it is a hobby for someone, compared to being a die-hard fan of an esports organisation?
“We sold out esports events last year, and it’s hard to see how much of that is the general gaming/esports community versus fans of teams. Who are the fans supporting, who are they following? It’s kind of hard to see where what they’re doing, how much of it is just the gaming community versus esports. So how can we convert the casual gaming community in the UK to an esports community? That’s what we need to do.”
Becky added: “I don’t think organisations failing for various reasons is a UK issue. Teams folding, not paying players and staff etc seems to be an esports-wide thing.”
“We need a proper regulatory body,” said LDN UTD Founder Oliver Weingarten, in the audience.
Wouter commented: “I think we’re too much in the mindset, even me years ago, that esports works like sports. I guess it doesn’t. We thought that franchising would work, and it didn’t.
“The content is free, so we have to find other ways to monetise this. Unfortunately it’s not yet coming from what game publishers are making in the game, of which we are a part. We have to find ways how we build our own identity, our monetisation channels.
“Years ago, Riot was taking down co-streams. Now they embrace it. And in fact, now sports starts to do those co-streams too. How do we monetise that? It’s about finding our own ways of how this works. Hopefully game publishers will be more open. Games are closed ecosystems, we need to build on [the links and] the entertainment side around publishers and I feel that’s very much missing.”
Wouter Sleijffers, ELO Studio & Ventures
“Of course, there’s the regulation part. But from a commercial perspective, some publishers may still want to go and pay a lot for players, but others have adapted as much as they could.”
EWC 22 esports. Three winners. US 14, South Korea had 11 and China had 10. French had 6.
‘Free ice cream for everyone who completes the UK esports 2025 London to Southend charity bike ride’ – Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke (pictured, right) also announced a UK esports London to Southend charity bike ride at the event, and has promised to buy anyone who completes it an ice cream.
It takes place on Sunday July 6th 2025 and will raise money for UNICEF.
Those involved in the charity fundraiser also include Get In Founder Nathan Edmonds and Fraser Esports Director James Fraser-Murison.
Join the UK esports London to Southend charity bike ride here.
The next Esports Breakfast Club event in London
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He has almost two decades of experience in journalism, and left Esports News UK in June 2025.
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 also previously worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation.
