It seems the tide may have finally come for massive investment in the world’s biggest eSports franchises. After the Team Dignitas buyout yesterday, fellow old school eSports powerhouse Team Liquid has today announced that they’ve been similarly purchased, this time by an investment group known as aXiomatic. The current owners, Steve Arhancet and Victor Goossens (also known as LiQuiD112 and Liquid`Nazgul) will take on new roles at the investment group while maintaining directorship and co-CEO status of Team Liquid.
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aXiomatic is backed by some huge names, including:
- Peter Guber, Chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment, co-owner of the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles FC.
- Ted Leonesis and his company Monumental Entertainment, who own Washington’s various major league teams.
- Many associated staff of the various management teams behind those sports franchises
- Dozens of other investors, including Magic Johnson, NBA hall of famer, the co-founder of AOL Steve Case, former CEO of Funny or Die Dick Glover and many more.
It’s a pretty massive move. In an announcement post on their website, Goossens and Arhancet say that it shouldn’t change things for the website itself or the management of the team. Both are on “long term agreements” as part of the company and Goossens says that “in a way, our involvement in leading Liquid is even more assured now than when we were sole owners.”
Between buying out Team Liquid – who have relevant teams across Dota 2, League of Legends, CS:GO, Overwatch and most other eSports games you could think of – aXiomatic is instantly an absolute powerhouse in multiple sporting fields, even if they weren’t also extremely rich. The Golden State Warriors were NBA champions two years ago and made the finals last year as part of the greatest winning record of all time in the sport.
A full list of business partners is available in BusinessWire’s announcement article. The real question is which team will be next.