European esports organisation Astralis has announced that current CEO Anders Hørsholt has stepped down from his role to become a Strategic Advisor to the executive board.
As a result, the company has chosen Founder and previous CEO Nikolaj Nyholm to replace him.
Hørsholt has been the CEO of Astralis for the last four years and has been at the helm of the company during a difficult time in esports. In the first two years of his tenure, the industry was marred by the pandemic, but despite this, Astralis managed to show increased revenue and decreased loss in its 2022 financial report. In the last year, there has also been a shift in the market often referred to as the esports winter.
Astralis itself has gone through extraordinary changes over the last year. In August, the board held a general meeting where it passed a vote to delist from NASDAQ and according to the Astralis website, the company officially delisted on 25th October 2023. The decision followed a ‘strategic review’ from the board of Astralis Group following a sustained plunge in its stock price early in 2023.
Hørsholt, the new Strategic Adviser to the executive board of Astralis, commented: “I am happy with the way the change is happening and the timing of same.
“I am proud of having served four years as the CEO of one of Denmark’s most interesting sports and entertainment brands and of the development the business and the organisation have gone through during my time.”
Nyholm was the CEO of the esports organisation until 2020. The Danish entrepreneur has founded seven technology and gaming start-ups, his most recent being the game studio Scattershot. Notably, Nyholm is also a founder of esports tournament organiser BLAST.
Since 2020, he has operated as Astralis’ Chairman of the Board and will now return to the role of CEO effective immediately.
The former CEO, Hørsholt, will step in as an associate member of the board until he is nominated by the main shareholders and existing board at the upcoming general meeting on April 9th.
Nikolaj Nyholm, the new CEO of Astralis, commented: “On a personal level, I am looking forward to re-entering as CEO of a business and organisation that eight years ago helped to power the development of esports as mainstream entertainment and which today in Denmark is as much youth culture as it is a team sport.
“The potential in Astralis is greater than ever, and I am looking forward to, together with a strong organisation, dreaming big and realizing new ambitions.”
