--ADDS BROKER COMMENTS--
UK eSports group Gfinity (LON:GFIN) said its 2015 video game championship has had more than 30mln online views, and the competition is still only half way through.
The views were racked up in the first three months of the professional gamers tournament, which comprises 25 weekly events between March and September.
And they are ahead of management targets of 50mln views for the entire ‘season’.
The events take place at Gfinity’s own arena, a converted cinema in Fulham, in front of a live audience.
"We have delivered excellent levels of viewership in the first half of our first season as an AIM company,” said chief executive Neville Upton.
“The progress made thus far reflects both the rapid growth in popularity of eSports and our ability to deliver compelling eSports events and content sought-after by a young, global audience, which is otherwise difficult to reach by advertisers and consumer brands.”
Through the Gfinity Championship Professional games, in teams, compete at each event for up to US$50,000 in total prize money.
The Championship is streamed over the internet via Gfinity’s own website, as well as eSports and media streaming sites such as Amazon’s Twitch and Major League Gaming (MLG.tv).
Broadcasts of the 2015 Gfinity Championship have been viewed in 25 countries, and have been in multiple languages. In this year’s championship teams of gamers have competed against each other playing titles such as Call of Duty, Counter Strike, FIFA 15 and Starcraft.
Gfinity also announced the appointment of Jon Varney as a new non-executive director.
Varney is a founding partner of Pitch International, which is a 5% shareholder and is also responsible for selling commercial rights on Gfinity’s behalf.
Upton says Varney has already proved to be a ‘great asset’ to the company, and his appointment brings “exceptional experience and insight of the commercial rights and broadcast markets.”
Gfinity in April secured its first major sponsorship deal with the signing of News Corp UK & Ireland, owner of The Sun newspapers.
Paul Morland, analyst at Arden Partners, says today’s update should encourage investors that Gfinity is delivering on promises made in its December 2014 IPO.
“Having signed its first major sponsorship deal with the Sun in April, today’s news is further evidence that Gfinity is developing into the leading organiser of major live eSports tournaments in the UK and then making them available for the large numbers of 16 to 34 year old males who watch online,” he said in a note.
“In time, we expect over 50m views from this demographic will prove highly attractive to advertisers.”