Semper Fortis Board member steps down

Top Blokes rebrands to SMPR
Image credit: Semper Fortis Esports

Semper Fortis EsportsCOO Jassem Osseiran has stepped down from the UK esports organisation’s Board of Directors, the company announced.

It is unclear whether Osseiran is still the company’s Chief Operating Officer. The company and Osseiran have been contacted for comment.

Semper Fortis went public on the Aquis Stock Exchange in April 2021, raising £2.55m on the first day of dealings. The following month, the company announced England footballers Harry Maguire and Dominic Calvert-Lewin as ambassadors. Semper Fortis soon acquired Rocket League team Top Blokes — which it has since let go of.

The organisation was heavily exposed to blockchain games like Axie Infinity. In its financial results for H1 2022, Sepmer Fortis stated that Axie Infinity NFTs it owned had reduced in value by 97%.

In that same report, Semper Fortis stated that it had released all of its esports teams because of the lack of revenue potential from competitions. The report reads: “With team costs being considerably higher than these earnings and with no visibility on significant increases in revenues in the near future, the decision was made to end all contracts with esports talent associated with the Company; with a view to considering an esports strategy with a lower cost base.”

The company previously had Nolan Bushnell, Founder of Atari, on its Board of Directors. According to Companies House, he resigned in July 2022.

In a release, Semper Fortis said the following about Osseiran’s departure: “In our results for the six months ended 31st July 2022 we said that we had reduced our overheads whilst we are searching for an appropriate strategy.

“As a Board, we are currently considering a number of options and we will report back to our stakeholders when we have determined on the future direction of the Company.”

Billy Studholme
Billy is Esports Insider's freelance Assistant Editor. He mostly reports on the business and economic landscape of esports. He has written for the Washington Post, Digiday, Dexerto, Esports.net and other outlets both endemic and non-endemic to the esports industry.