This week in Esports: Las Vegas, Fnatic and a Finnish football club

As we hit the long Easter weekend there’s no better time to summarise another busy week of esports news. Esports juggernaut Fnatic secured $7 million (£5.64m) in investment from investors including sporting giants AS Roma and the Boston Celtics. Staying with the sporting theme and Finnish football club SJK have added a CS:GO team to their ranks, whilst Swiss team FC Lausanne-Sport have gone further with CS:GO, Hearthstone, Overwatch and Rocket League all part of their new esports push.

Furthermore, the owners of the first Vegas esports arena Millennial Esports secured $2 million (£1.61m) in funding whilst a 30,000 square foot arena has been announced at the Luxor in Las Vegas. 

Fnatic secure $7 million funding

In arguably the biggest news this week, one of the most established brands in esports, Fnatic, announced that they had received a staggering $7 million of investment. 

According to the announcement, the funding will be used for an array of purposes. It ranges from the personnel side such as: coaches, analysts and psychologists all the way to facility infrastructure and academy teams, and even products and apparel. 

Sam Matthews, Founder of Fnatic commented: ““We’re incredibly excited by the opportunities available within esports, and having world class investors and advisors only enhances our ability to address these opportunities and continue to innovate.”

Read the full article here.

FC Lausanne-Sport acquire Qualitas Helvetica and re-brand to LS Esports

Swiss club FC Lausanne-Sport didn’t take the gentle route into esports with just a FIFA player. Quite the contrary, in fact, with the acquisition of existing esports brand Qualitas Helvetica and its immediate rebranding to LS Esports. 

The club will now house teams in CS:GO, Hearthstone, Overwatch and Rocket League. According to the press release, LS will be looking to provide training for young gamers aiming to make their way in a tough to crack esports world. 

In the same press release, the club expresses its desire to ” develop the Lausanne-Sport brand, to attract a young audience to the Pontaise and the new complex of La Tuilière in the summer of 2019.”The Pontaise refers to the Pontaise Stadium in Lausanne, Switzerland which is FC Lausaunne’s home turf. 

Read the full article here.

Finnish football club SJK expand into CS:GO

The football related news doesn’t stop there as Finnish club SJK added CS:GO to their existing FIFA esports offering. 

The roster is five Finnish players who have achieved fairly good results in the local scene at local tournaments.  This article from Finnish publication Ilta Sanomat suggests that the team have practiced for the first time under the SJK banner. The team is set to complete in a multitude of online tournaments, yet are unlikely to don the shirts of SJK and compete in an offline tournament until June or at Kajaani’s tournament in July.

Read the full article here.

Allied Esports & Esports Arena to develop an esports arena at the Luxor in Vegas

Allied Esports and Esports Arena have announced plans for a new dedicated esports venue to be developed at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

The new Esports Arena Las Vegas is scheduled to open in early 2018 will become the first permanent esports venue on The Strip. It will be the centre of Allied Esports’ growing global network of esports properties which spans North America, Europe and China. The centre looks set to be a major venue for esports with a 30,000 square foot space and some major investment going into ensuring it is the best of the best. 

The space in the Luxor is currently home to a 30,000 square foot nightclub. Esports Arena is working with Luxor and design firm YWS Design & Architecture to transform the space into a ‘multi-level arena complete with a competition stage, LED video wall, telescopic seating, daily gaming stations, a robust food and beverage offering, and state-of- the-art streaming and television-quality production studios’. 

Read the full article here.

Millennial Esports secure $2m in funding

In other Vegas news, Millennial Esports, the company that brought Vegas’ first dedicated esports arena to fruition has announced that it has received $2 million in investment. 

Millennial Esports is best known for “thE Arena”, Las Vegas’ first permanent esports arena and studio. It’s a 15,000 square foot facility located on Fremont Street at the Neonopolis in Downtown Las Vegas. It recently played host to an EA Challenger sanctioned Madden 17 event and opened with the NA Halo World Championship qualifier at the beginning of March.

The additional investment secured is great news for Millennial who have already made bold moves into the esports space. As Downtown Vegas continues its regeneration, esports could yet play a big part and with further investment secured, Millennial look well placed to take advantage. 

Read the full article here.