North American esports organisation Evil Geniuses has been acquired by Chicago-based investment firm PEAK6 Investments.
As part of the acquisition, Nicole LaPointe Jameson will assume the role of CEO of the organisation. Jameson previously worked in the strategic capital branch of PEAK6 Investments.
Phillip Aram will remain in his post as COO of Evil Geniuses, concentrating on gaming performance of the organisation’s rosters. Both LaPointe Jameson and Aram will take part in an ‘ask me anything’ session on Evil Geniuses’ subreddit on May 30th to answer questions about the acquisition.
The official announcement discussed the acquisition: “Since the divestment from Twitch in 2016, our staff, headed by COO Phillip Aram, has been working tirelessly to maintain the legacy of excellence and trust that we’ve built up over years of competition. We believe that PEAK6 shares these values, and is the right partner to maintain them with.”
When streaming platform Twitch acquired Good Game Agency – the parent company of Evil Geniuses and Alliance at the time – in 2014, it took control of both organisations. In late 2016, Twitch gave control of both Evil Geniuses and Alliance over to players, as well as player-selected management.
Evil Geniuses announced its partnership with Razer earlier this month, rekindling a working relationship that ran from 2013 to 2015. The organisation signed with Razer’s competitor SteelSeries in-between the first stint and this new two-year deal.
Esports Insider says: Now this’ll be interesting. LaPointe Jameson seemingly has no prior direct experience in running an esports organisation so we’re intrigued to see how things’ll go, though Aram has been around long enough to help steer the ship in the right direction if needed. That being said, the new CEO obviously has a lot of important business experience and Evil Geniuses now has more resources so we expect some big moves from the organisation in the following months.
