On Monday, April 17th, Esports Entertainment Group (EEG) CEO, Mr Alex Igelman, provided a lengthy and detailed letter to the company’s shareholders, outlining a more positive future ahead for the once-beleaguered company.

The letter detailed the strategies, decisions made, and directives followed by EEG over the first four months since Igelman was appointed CEO.

While it is clear that the company is not yet out of the woods in terms of its present and future solvency, there are much more positive echoes throughout the letter giving shareholders a much more appealing view of the future of the company.

Key Highlights from the Letter

Amongst the main points of the letter were these facts:

• CEO Igelman has completed a thorough review of the company from “top-to-bottom’ with a view of where “the esports and esports gambling industries are heading”, tying the decisions he made into what he called a “cohesive vision” for EEG.
• He has identified “several valuable assets” owned by the company that it already owned and which will serve as “the foundation for the Company’s new direction.”
• He aims to continue “streamlining the business” and in doing so he is confident that EEG can “establish a dominant position within this high-growth industry and drive long-term profitability.”

Effects of Streamlining

It hasn’t been a pleasant process for many in streamlining EEG. In addition to the sale of a number of facets of the business, such as Bethard, Argyll Entertainment and EEG’s esports Spanish Gaming License, the company has also reduced its full-time employees by a third from 158 to 99.

The net effect of this is a reduction in annual salaries paid out by EEG by 36%, as well as over $4m in annual expenses being saved once the upfront costs have been absorbed by the company.

The changes have seen annual debt and liabilities reduced by $27.1m from the end of 2022.

Furthermore, the principal amount from the company’s Senior Convertible Note was reduced by almost half from $32.2m to $15.9m in the same time period.

The company also eliminated $7.5m of debt when selling Bethard and also reduced its lease liability by $0.8m.

Future Strategy

EEG plans to continue streamlining and to focus on its B2C esports wagering through its Idefix platform, as well as integrating the Oddin.gg iFrame solution on its esports betting service.

The aim is to offer an ‘esports-first’ Idefix-based B2B platform which the company can then sell to third parties that are interested in setting up their own focused esports betting site.

Unsurprisingly, given the fragmentary nature of esports betting in the USA, the company has a specific focus for development across the US, focusing on providing B2B bespoke services for those wanting esports betting services, as well as an additional focus on smaller e-simulator tournaments and content.

The company also revealed it has plans to move into the “education market” where it feels there is “a significant near-term opportunity”.

“Extremely Confident”

In his conclusion, Igelman commented that his new team were committed to developing the key strategic initiatives needed to make EEG a profitable business once again.

“With the right leadership,” Igelman concluded “direction and financial discipline, I am extremely confident we can establish Esports Entertainment as a leader in this rapidly emerging market while unlocking value for shareholders.”