Last week marked a major milestone for Gen.G Esports as they announced raising $46 million from an array of investors that including actor Will Smith, Los Angeles Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong, Stanford University, New Enterprise Associates, and Silicon Valley Bank as some of those involved.
The esports organization is planning to continue their global expansion with the help of the recent influx of finances.
“We’re continuing our global expansion,” Gen.G’s COO Arnold Hurr said, during an interview with The Esports Observer.
“We’re really excited about that,” Hur continued. “That’s part of our global expansion—making sure that we’re expanding our second headquarters, and making sure that we build on that momentum. We do have some interesting opportunities out in China. We’re going to continue to invest in that market, as well.”
“We can say [to sponsors], ‘Look, we can activate you in China. We can activate you in Los Angeles in the U.S., and we can really go after the largest markets for you,’” said Hur. “Right off the bat on the marketing side, it’s a huge advantage to have local team members on the ground who understand that market, with teams that are going to activate locally as well as international teams that can drop in and have great global exposure—like the [Overwatch League’s] Seoul Dynasty.”
“Across the board, on the competitive side and on the marketing side, there’s some big advantages to be able to say you’re a global company,” he said. “Probably the most important one is the really simple fact that esports is global, and if you’re trying to be one of the top esports teams in the world and you’re saying you’re not global, it just doesn’t make sense. I would not be surprised if a lot of other esports teams try to replicate our model, and try to establish spearheads in Asia.”
Hur also is keeping an eye on the scouting end of things.
“We want to continue to double down on our scouting team, as well as our academy team and academy program,” Hur said. “We have what we believe to be one of the best scouting teams in esports in the world, as well as a curriculum—so that if young people join, they’re able to be a much better player really quickly instead of trying to figure it all out on their own.”
You can read the full interview over at The Esports Observer.
