Mentioned in this article Teams: Astralis

GODSENT’s ownership group, including esports agency RFRSH Entertainment, is seeking a potential buyer, as first reported by Flickshot and confirmed by The Esports Observer. Among a variety of interested parties—including international corporations as well as strategic investors, all directly or indirectly already involved in esports—is a Swedish first division soccer club looking to enter the space, according to sources close to the organization.

Reaching out for comment, RFRSH spokesperson Steen Laursen confirmed ongoing talks, however, didn’t disclose any details.

”We do not comment on specifics in regards to contracts, players, or teams, however, it has always been the intention to work with multiple teams for a limited period of time only,” Laursen said.

The divestiture can be read as a consequence to comply with the World Esports Association’s (WESA) rules regarding multi-team ownership. RFRSH owns majority stakes in both Astralis and Heroic as well as a minority share in GODSENT—all three competing in the WESA-sanctioned ESL Pro League. The Danish agency came to an agreement with WESA last June, under which it was given an 18-month grace period to settle the issue. As a result, the ties with at least two of the three teams need to be cut by December.

While there is still time left, RFRSH is reacting to an increasing demand on the market and the agency being “an obvious choice of contact for many reasons,” as Laursen puts it.

“As the market changes and as our work with teams and brands materialize, the interest from potential investors also increases. On this basis we can confirm that we’re talking to different potential strategic investors—as we have been for a while. Several new potential investors are entering the esports market […]. As such it’s not a new situation for us to have these talks.”

Sources close to the situation, however, told TEO that the talks aren’t as casual and informal as RFRSH makes them sound like. In fact, the current ownership group is actively looking to sell.

Consequently, it is not just RFRSH’s shares that will eventually be sold, but rather the total amount of shares, which confirms the Flickshot report. This includes shares of GODSENT founder Markus “pronax” Wallsten, who already announced plans for a new project with his peer Mikail “Maikelele” Bill. Selling off his shares would certainly help in funding this endeavor.

To date, no deal has been made, however. As is often the case for esports, things can evolve rather quickly, and while specifics about the interested parties remain scarce, one can expect a high-level entry coming out on top. Pinning down a price tag isn’t easy, but GODSENT can be considered a relatively valuable brand. It’s certainly not on the level of, say, the G2-FaZe roster acquisition from two years ago, which was valued at $700,000.

Still, it will be interesting to see, whose bid will prevail in the end. Another high-profile soccer club following the steps of FC Schalke 04 or Paris Saint-Germain? A big corporation? An angel investor? For now, we can only speculate.