The Danish e-sport team, Astralis Esport, has secured an investment from the venture capital fund, Sunstone Capital, and the Danish business angel, Tommy Ahlers. Bird & Bird represented Astralis Esport in the negotiations.
Sunstone Capital and Tommy Ahlers have decided to invest more than a million Danish kroner in Astralis Esport, which operates one of the world's best Counter-Strike teams. Astralis participates in some of the world's biggest Counter-Strike tournaments and they are followed closely by more than 300,000 people on social media.
The investment, which is the first of its kind in the world, opens an explosively growing market. The business case for professional e-sport is primarily sponsorships and selling "stickers", which are virtual tags that fans can use in their own game. E-sport utilises the social media as a platform for fans to follow the super stars to a degree unseen in other industries. The biggest tournaments are streamed live by millions of viewers. It is estimated that more than 100 million fans are watching e-sport worldwide.
Bird & Bird Denmark represented Astralis Esport through the investment. Besides negotiating the investment, our involvement inter alia included establishment of the organisation behind the team and preparation of the player contracts. The intention of Astralis is to offer the professional players good and balanced surroundings to exercise their sport. The industry has historically been characterised by teams with owners who primarily focuses on profits. Bird & Bird has prepared the player contracts inter alia on the basis of our international experience with football players from Premier League.
