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League/Tournament Brands:
- Team Vitality has opened its public-facing HQ in Paris; a 10,700 sq ft complex with offices, gaming centers, and a merchandise shop.
- The organization has also raised $15.5M USD (€14M EUR) from entrepreneur Tej Kohli’s Rewired.GG gaming fund.
- This round of funding will help further Vitality’s international expansion plans, and enhance its coaching and player wellness resources.
French esports organization Team Vitality has officially open its 10,700 sq ft esports complex in Paris. The “V.Hive” includes an office space for the company, a public gaming center, co-working space, shop, and cafe. The opening coincides with the announcement that Team Vitality has raised a $15.5M (€14M) second funding round from Indian technology entrepreneur Tej Kohli’s Rewired.GG gaming fund.
V.Hive has been conceived as a full-scale event space, with the goal of hosting national events, masterclasses, conferences, viewing parties, and showcases. The HQ’s 27 gaming PCs can be hired out for bootcamping, while the lower floors include content production facilities to be used by Vitality employees, players, and professional streamers.
“This place is the epitome of the brand,” Nicolas Maurer, CEO of Team Vitality told The Esports Observer. “We are a French team, we want this place for our fans. It’s really for the brand; monetization comes on top. There are a lot of ways to monetize this place: day-to-day PC bang, a lot of events, because it’s a place where we will do a lot of events with our partners and players.”
The company would not disclose the cost of the facility, but on the topic of revenue, Fabien Devide, Vitality executive president and co-founder, explained that there would be a membership program made available. “People who want to be loyal to the place can also have some exclusive goodies, merchandising, etc. We want to find a way to reward loyal fans,” he said.
“At the same time, if someone wants to just have an experience, because [they are] nostalgic for Counter-Strike, and they used to play in the PC bang in France 10 years ago, of course it’s a package of hours.”
The space was designed by HKS, the architects behind the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium and the Minnesota Vikings’ U.S. Bank Stadium. “We helped them in a conceptual, design strategy role” said Chi Bhatia, an associate of HKS’ sports and entertainment group. “To me, a big part of their growth was a lifestyle aspect. That combined with their investment focus and entering the real estate space made us realize that the ground floor specifically is a flexible event space, that they need to generate revenue from.”
In attendance at the HQ’s ribbon cutting were investor Tej Kohli and Rewired.gg group CEO Amit Jain. Team Vitality previously raised €20M (then $22.7M) from Rewired.gg one year ago, in November 2018, with the latest investment bringing his total to €34M ($37.7M). The previous investment was intended to aid with Vitality’s League of Legends European Championship (LEC) entry fee, along with establishing facilities and expanding into Asia.
According to a report from Les Echos, Team Vitality plans to use the latest round of funding to further its international expansion plans, as well as boost its coaching and player wellness resources.
“We are moving towards a two-tier ecosystem where a small number of teams will consume the vast majority of available funds,” Maurer told Les Echos. “The sequence will still last a few years, and there is still room for some teams, but this new fundraising confirms our place in the top three of Europe, as well as our role as a locomotive for French esport.”
Graham Ashton contributed to this story.
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