German esports and gaming marketing agency Freaks 4U Gaming announced the strategic acquisition of ProGaming Italia, an esports and gaming event organizer in Italy and Switzerland, from Game.Fin for an undisclosed amount.
While Freaks 4U now owns ProGaming Italia, the company told The Esports Observer that ProGaming Italia will be operated just like a joint venture, as “amongst both CEOs and all shareholders of Freaks 4U Gaming and ProGaming Italia, the intention has always been to forge a strategic alliance as equals.”
ProGaming Italia partners with several international esports organizations, game developers, and tournament organizers to deliver esports tournaments. Partners include Riot Games with which it partners on the majority of Valorant activities in Italy and ESL which ProGaming Italia is a long-standing licensee of. As part of its ongoing licensing deal with ESL, which is also a minority shareholder of ProGaming Italia, the company’s CEO Daniel Schmidhofer has been appointed as CEO of ESL Italy, Switzerland and Austria.
In March 2021, Freaks 4U Gaming and ProGaming Italia initially entered into a strategic partnership to develop Italy-targeted Valorant news and content platform Agent’s Range Italia.
As part of the acquisition, Freaks 4U Gaming acquired all shares of ProGaming Italia held by majority shareholder Game.Fin, the holding company owned by Schmidhofer. In return, Game.Fin has acquired shares of Freaks 4U Gaming and is now a minority shareholder. Freaks 4U did not disclose whether Game.Fin received any additional compensation. Schmidhofer will continue to lead ProGaming Italia as CEO, while also assuming a vice president position as part of the Freaks 4U Gaming leadership team.
