South Korean esports organisation T1 Entertainment & Sports has announced it is looking to raise $35m (~£27.8m) to bolster its operations.
According to Joe Marsh, CEO of T1 Entertainment and Sports, part of the funding would be used to expand the T1 Base Camp, a PC gaming café opened in Seoul, South Korea earlier this year.
The move comes on the heels of T1’s record-breaking fifth League of Legends (LoL) World Championship win, with T1 CEO Joe Marsh saying that T1 is aiming to use that success to look towards its ‘biggest expansion’ in comments made to the Sports Business Journal.
Marsh explained how the gaming cafes are a ‘revenue-generating, cash-flow business’ that the company hopes to build upon using the recognisable T1 brand, with interest in opening locations in Japan, Vietnam, Singapore and China. He also claimed that the T1 Base Camp became the number-one PC gaming café in South Korea following its launch.
Additionally, the organisation will look to expand its live events operations after hosting its first homestand matches this year. T1 Home Ground, held in the 6,200-capacity Goyang Sono Arena, saw T1’s League of Legends teams play official league fixtures in front of a home crowd, generating more than $1m (~£794,000) through tickets, food and beverage sales and merchandising sales, according to Marsh.
If permitted by developer Riot Games, T1 will entertain the possibility of hosting such shows outside of South Korea, as well as selling the naming rights for events. In a post on LinkedIn, Joe Marsh also teased an upcoming live event centre around LoL player Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok, though he did not disclose any specific details.
A funding round would see the organisation raise capital for the first time since the T1 brand was introduced. With the team previously known as SK Telecom T1, the current branding was created as a joint venture between South Korean telecommunications company SK Telecom and American sports and entertainment company Comcast Spectacor in 2019.
