Alex Inglot, the Commissioner of the ESL Pro League (Esports). We discuss his legal background, his various sports roles before he entered the Esports world. Alex has been involved across multiple spectrums of the sports industry and is sharing his experiences with us before diving deep into his current role as Commissioner of the ESL Pro League (CS:GO).  Lots of great stories and learning across sports and gaming.

 

 Key Highlights

How it all started, studying law at Oxford, playing Volleyball at Uni to his first internship at IMG – Rugby World Cup contract work

A few years of commercial law at various law firms in London – looking at a way back into the industry

Took FIFA International Master program to bring him back into the industry

First job after the program, heading to Mexico working at Atlante FC (club had just moved to Cancun), establishing a new fan base and building relationship with the region

Couple of years at JTA – working on Manchester United Corporate Communication, working with owner Jon Tibbs, difference between legal and marketing communication principles

Sportradar – promoting Sportradar’s integrity services to Federations and other rights holders (as Director of Communication), later involved in the non-betting services and then the opportunities in US sports betting

ATP Tour – Board Director – European Player Representative -working with ATP Player Council to drive progress for the members, redistribution of prize money, etc

Setting up systems, processes, transparency (eliminating distrust between players and tournaments) -driven by Andrea Gaudenzi’s vision, the new Chairman of ATP Tour

How ATP Tour survived Covid and continued the vision of Gaudenzi – creating a JV mentality between players and events

During COVID, ticketing revenue, which had always been very important for tennis events now became a vulnerability

ATP Media – broadcast arm, bundling rights across different levels of events – aggregating media rights was key to create one stop shop for broadcasters and/or fans

Commissioner of ESL Pro League (CS:GO – Counter Strike – Global Offensive) – major title by Valve

Intro to CS:GO – history the past 10 years – one of the major FPS (First person Shooter) games, played globally

ESL Pro Tour – owned by ESL FACEIT Group (new entity, created through merger, owned by Savvy Gaming Group from Saudi Arabia)

CS:GO landscape with total Price money US$ 18 mil across all events  - players earning US$ 20-50k per month

Comparison with other games and economics for teams – power of Publisher

Louvre Agreement – distribution of money ESL makes to teams to build ecosystem – helping to sustain teams investments

CS 2.0 is coming later this year and how the transition will happen

Structure of League – 12 founding member teams – revenue share of traditional revenues such as sponsorship – guaranteed slot in Pro-League (currently 15 out of 32 team format)

Opportunities for sponsor by aggregation of rights, bundling is key opportunity

League staged in Malta – teams fly in for periods of time – Malta Gaming establishing itself as Esports/Gaming hub

Esports/Gaming after Covid – from red hot to current slow down, is there a “winter” or just a natural correction?

The fundamentals of Esports are solid and very attractive, especially anyone targeting the younger demographics (Metaverse, digital items, etc)

 

About

A unique strategist drawing on years of international corporate and commercial law in the City of London; nearly a decade working at the sharp end of global sports communications and public affairs; and now Commissioner of the ESL Pro League. Focused on reading the landscape, developing a direction, securing buy-in and delivering impact.Driving the new structure that sits behind the CSGO ecosystem-leading EPL to ensure optimal governance and operations, record-breaking revenues and fair distribution, and the realisation of existing and upcoming aggrega

Episode ID: 1000612347064

GUID: marcusluer.podbean.com/9d97d831-4572-3ae3-a2d4-0544cdce040f

Release Date: 09/05/2023, 19:18:21