At the beginning of 2016, the first player owned organisation in CS:GO was announced. Through the rest of the year, more emerged.
December 21st saw RFRSH announce itself to the world in a press conference, stating they’re to be working with these organisations’ commercial activities, media rights and more.
The organisations that the company is backing are Astralis, Godsent, Heroic and Norse. The first three organisations on that list have had help from the company for months now, publicly announced or not, with Norse being the newest announcement. The company is set to help teams sell themselves and products, as well as providing a Copenhagen training facility, featuring three state-of-the-art practice rooms and a players’ lounge.
According to an interview with The Daily Dot, RFRSH Entertainment CEO Nikolaj Nyholm states that the company aren’t currently shareholders but “we won’t rule that out for the future”, and that they’re “setting up an investment company on the side” to serve that purpose.
The agency features Nyhom, alongside former Managing Partner of Astralis Jacob Lund Kristensen. They also include former ESL Head of League Operations Graham Pitt as Head of Esports Operations, alongside former Denmark Handball Goalkeeper Kasper Hvidt as Director of Sports. It is backed by Tommy Ahlers and Sunstone Capital, two of the names behind Astralis’ foundation.
Esports Insider says: A large, comprehensive group of teams are represented by this organisation. They’re uniting experienced investment, sports and esports people behind one organisation to further the commercial activities of each organisation, and in turn strengthening esports.
