Esports and gaming company Gfinity has announced a one-year renewal and expansion of its partnership with racing brand Formula 1.
Gfinity will continue to deliver all of the main elements of the F1 Esports Series in 2022, as well as parts of 2023. This includes the ‘Pro Exhibition’ from F1’s Lenovo British GP and the Pro Championship. Gfinity Arena in London will remain the main venue for live broadcasts and will host LAN racing events during the season.
Gfinity and Formula 1 first started cooperating back in 2017, when the motorsport brand enlisted Gfinity to help with the production of its esports efforts.
The esports company also has strong connections to Codemasters, the developers of the official F1 video game series. Gfinity is involved in designing, developing and delivering the F1 Esports Series.
As a part of this one-year extension, Gfinity will provide numerous services to F1. This includes a ‘dedicated account management team’, as well as a full league operations team that will write rules and govern the drivers. Lastly, Gfinity’s Race Control, a proprietary in-race adjudication system, will also be used in F1 Esports for the upcoming season.
Gfinity also announced that the company will offer adjudication services to Codemasters for the 2023 Challenger Series, an F1 Esports event.
John Clarke, Gfinity’s CEO, noted in a release that the last year’s edition of F1 Esports saw a major increase in viewership, adding up to a total of 23m viewers across all platforms. According to the announcement, both parties will aim to improve upon these numbers in 2022.
Gfinity’s large Arena in London has already hosted a number of esports tournaments and events, with major names like the NBA 2K League and the Call of Duty World League both utilising it prior to the pandemic.
