News

Esports firm Vindex to buy Belong brand from GAME for around $50 million

Plans to invest $300 million over the next five years

Date Type Companies involved Size
July 30th, 2020 acquisition GAME Digital plc Not disclosed
Esports firm Vindex to buy Belong brand from GAME for around $50 million

New York esports company Vindex has agreed to buy Belong Gaming from Sports Direct-owned GAME Digital.

According to the Financial Times, the deal is valued at around $50 million. The Belong brand was launched by GAME back in 2016, with these stores featuring esports arenas that consumers could go to in order to watch matches and take part in competitions.

Vindex has said that it plans to invest $300 million in the Belong brand over the next five years and intends to open over 500 arenas in the United States as well as 1,000 locations around the world.

The deal also sees GAME Digital CEO Martyn Gibbs (pictured) departing the company to take up the chief exec role for Belong Gaming. Gibbs has been CEO since April 2012, when he was hired to help GAME out of administration.

He initially worked at retail chain Gamestation starting as commercial director in 2003 and moving to the position of MD in 2007 when the company was bought by GAME. From there he rose to become MD for the firm's UK, Eire, Scandanavia and Czech Republic businesses.

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PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.