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Gaming event specialist Gfinity (LON:GFIN) boosted its registered user base ten-fold as interest in watching the best gamers play surged.
Registered users on its site jumped to more than 400,000 from 43,000 in the year to June, while its eSports event in August received almost nine million online views.
Translating this interest into cash is the next challenge and losses over the year jumped to £3.6mln (£0.9mln) even though revenues more than doubled to £561,000 (£213,000).
Gfinity also called on shareholders for a top-up today, with a book build placing at a price of not less than 19p to raise £1mln.
The company raised £3.5mln when it listed last year. It wants the money partly to develop a mobile app to add to the existing YouTube and video gamer Twitch –based service.
Neville Upton, chief executive said: “The success of the 2015 Gfinity championships, attracting over 50 million online views and sell-out crowds, demonstrates our ability to provide sponsors and broadcasters with a level of regular top level eSports content that has not been available in the UK before.
"The sector continues to develop rapidly and offers exciting opportunities.
“Our ability to take advantage of these will depend on our funding and speed of revenue development through sponsorship and other forms of monetisation.”
Broker Arden said Gfinity’s objective is to build its reputation within the gaming community and game publishers to establish itself as one of the world’s leading eSports broadcasters.
"Giant strides have been made in this regard with the 2015 Gfinity Championships – a set of 25 weekly tournaments at the Gfinity Arena, which exceeded its target of 50mln online views."
Sales this year are forecast by the broker to triple to £1.6mln.
Shares fell 14% to 21p.