Hashtag United to join Elite Series

RNS Number : 6912D

Gfinity PLC

02 February 2018

 

Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement that contains inside information according to REGULATION (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR)

Gfinity plc

("Gfinity" or the "Company")

esports team with over two million YouTube subscribers to compete in third season of Elite Series

Hashtag United becomes the latest franchise to join the third season of the esports tournament

Gfinity plc (AIM: GFIN), a leading international esports entertainment group, announces that Hashtag United  will join the third season of its Gfinity Elite Series, which will commence next month at the Gfinity Arena in London.

Hashtag United was founded in 2016 by internet entrepreneur Spencer Owen. He is a FIFA gamer best known for his Spencer FC YouTube channel which has nearly two million subscribers. Hashtag United, which has won tens of thousands of prize money to date competing in FIFA tournaments, is headquarted in London and has amassed a considerable following of nearly 350,000 viewers by streaming football games on YouTube. The BBC reported in 2016 that Hashtag United's games were watched on a weekly basis by more than half a million viewers and the audience is continuing to grow.

As of January 2017, Spencer FC and Hashtag United had a combined YouTube audience of nearly 2.3 million viewers, plus the latter has over 160,000 and 300,000 active Twitter and Instagram followers respectively. In addition, Hashtag United's FIFA team is supported by 1 million fans.

Elite Series

The Gfinity Challenger Series, which gives the opportunity for players to compete for selection for the Elite Series, has had over 20,000 18-35-year-old gamers participate from 18 different countries. Season One of the Elite Series created 180 hours of live broadcast viewed by over three million people in more than 30 countries, with Elite Series Season Two receiving over five million live views, giving a combined total of nine million views for the first two seasons. 

Having increased the number of teams competing in the third season to 10, Hashtag United joins new teams including: Team Vitality, Fnatic, and Ares, together with an existing roster featuring major esports franchises such as Team Envy and Epsilon. The teams will go head-to-head on EA SPORTS FIFA 18, Rocket League and Street Fighter V. Season Three of the Elite Series is scheduled to start on Friday 9^th March.

Neville Upton, Chief Executive of Gfinity, said: "The signing of Hashtag United is further evidence of the success of the Elite Series and its appeal to multiple communities from real-world football to gaming. Hashtag United has a huge fanbase with incredible reach and the chance for amateur gamers to join their ranks and be part of their next venture is something that will excite all players who are competing in the Challenger Series and will prove highly attractive to prospective commercial partners."

Spencer Owen of Hashtag United, said: "I'm absolutely delighted that Hashtag United will be part of the Gfinity Elite Series as it's where my own personal journey with esports began and, more importantly, where Hashtag United's esports team was born through The Spencer FC Game Academy where we signed our first player, Harry Hesketh," said Spencer Owen. "We now have the opportunity to branch out into other titles and I am looking forward to the Draft and to sign some new players to join the Hashtag United family and represent us on FIFA 18, Rocket League and Street Fighter V. I can't wait for this to start and for Hashtag United to be part of the Elite Series, hopefully picking up some trophies along the way!"

Enquiries:

Gfinity plc	www.gfinityplc.com
Neville Upton, Chief Executive Officer	Via Walbrook PR
Allenby Capital Limited - AIM Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker	Tel: [phone]
Jeremy Porter / John Depasquale / James Thomas
Shore Capital - Joint Broker	Tel: [phone]
Patrick Castle
Walbrook PR (Media & Investor Relations)	Tel: [phone]
Paul Cornelius /Sam Allen	or [e-mail]

About Gfinity

Founded in 2012, Gfinity has established itself as one of the world's leading esports companies.  The London-based business enjoys strong relationships with game publishers, players and the wider esports community and has built a solid reputation for delivering high quality competitions, both on-line at www.gfinityesports.com and off-line, in addition to producing industry leading esports broadcasts.

The Gfinity Esports Arena at Fulham Broadway, London is the home of UK esports showcasing regular tournaments across the full range of competitive games. Beyond its own tournaments Gfinity provides a full turnkey solution for brands wanting to create their own esports tournaments and has staged premium esports events around the globe for leading publishers and brands including Formula 1, Microsoft, Activision, EA, Xbox, Gillette and HP.

Gfinity is an accredited official EA SPORTS™ FIFA 18 Global Series qualifier as EA brings competitive FIFA to millions of fans around the world through the EA SPORTS FIFA 18 Global Series on The Road to the FIFA eWorld Cup 2018 in August 2018. 

For more details on the entire EA SPORTS FIFA 18 Global Series, please visit www.FUTChampions.com

For more information about the Challenger season, which is free and open to everyone, please visit https://challenger.gfinityesports.com/

About Hashtag United

Hashtag United is an English YouTube-based football club & esports team that was founded in 2016. They gained notability due to recording their matches, playing in stadiums across the globe and regularly going up against world famous superstars. They are led by their captain, Spencer Owen also known as Spencer FC, who has just under 2 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. On Hashtag's channel they uploads matches, esports highlights, vlogs and other content which is regularly watched by hundreds of thousands of fans. To learn more about Hashtag United, go to its website, or check out YouTube, or Twitter.

Social stats:

300k on Instagram

350k subscribers on Hashtag United YouTube channel

1,945,000 subscribers for Spencer on his personal YouTube channel

Just under 1 million subscribers across our FIFA team.

170k Twitter followers

About esports

Esports (electronic sports) is watching or playing competitive video gaming. Leading titles include League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Defence of the Ancients 2 (DotA 2), Call of Duty and Rocket League. The industry is growing rapidly, with new communities developing around more and more titles. The global esports market generated US$493 million of revenue in 2016 and is expected to make $1.5 billion by 2020. The global esports audience in 2017 was 191 million people, 80% under the age of 35 and 70% male (source: Newzoo). Online streaming channels Twitch and YouTube command the biggest audiences, although esports events are also now being broadcast on conventional TV. The 2015 League of Legends Championships finals in Berlin were watched by 36 million people, with a peak concurrent viewership of 14 million viewers, while at DotA 2's flagship annual championship 'The International 2016' competitors from around the world competed for a prize pot of over $20 million.

 

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