Immortals Gaming Club – the parent company of Immortals, MIBR, Los Angeles Valiant, and Gamers Club – is “very likely” to be successful in the purchase of Infinite Esports & Entertainment, according to sources close to the deal.
The company’s interest in acquiring Infinite Esports & Entertainment – which houses OpTic Gaming, OpTic LoL, and Houston Outlaws – was first reported on May 3rd by ESPN. On May 1st, Immortals Gaming Club rebranded from Immortals LLC following a Series B funding round that amounted to $30 million.
Should the sale go through, Immortals Gaming Club would set up a separate holding entity for Overwatch League franchise Houston Outlaws while it tries to sell it in the following months. According to ESPN’s report, it is against “league-wide multi-ownership rules” for a company to house two franchises in Activision Blizzard’s league and with LA Valiant already a part of the Immortals ownership group, action would need to be taken on that front.
Texas Esports, which owns Infinite Esports & Entertainment, has set a deadline for the sale of May 31st, according to sources. It is considering selling the company to Immortals Gaming Club for substantially less than the initial reported amount of $150 million by this date – even if it means degrading the OpTic Gaming brand.
Starting in 2018, Riot Games introduced franchising to North American competition NA LCS – resulting in 10 franchises becoming permanent partners in the league for $10 million each. Immortals was declined as a partner and subsequently hasn’t been part of the league since 2017, though that will change should the reported Infinite Esports & Entertainment purchase prove successful.
It was reported in November 2017 that Texas Rangers co-owner Neil Leibman had acquired a majority stake in OpTic Gaming. The organisation became part of Infinite Esports & Entertainment, which over the coming months became the home to a suite of supporting companies, such as Innovative Performance Institute, Triggerfish Partnerships, NGAGE Esports, Sector Six, Third Label, and No Scope Media. It also acquired the organisations Obey Alliance and Team Allegiance in the first half of 2018.
Immortals declined to comment when asked by Esports Insider.
Esports Insider says: If this deal does indeed go through, we find it hard to see how OpTic Gaming will still exist: its LCS team would be rebranded, Immortals owns MIBR so it can’t retain the Danish CS:GO team, and Call of Duty franchising means that the brand wouldn’t exist as we currently know it come 2020. This, all in all, would be a sad sight for the industry considering OpTic Gaming is undoubtedly one of the leading brands and only seemed to be getting better up until 2018.
