Gfinity enters partnership to design advanced esports facility

Esports experts Gfinity on Friday partnered with engineering firm Arup in order to design "the world's most advanced integrated esports facility".

The scalable, specialist playing, watching, training, learning and broadcast facility will be a place for all gamers to come together and compete, according to Gfinity, who also said they are confident that the resulting blueprint will lead to an organisation opting to bring the concept to life.

Chris Dite, an architect and associate director at Arup, said: "The focus of the project is to create facilities that exceed the expectations of the professional players, the aspirational professionals, the amateurs who want to compete in a fun, safe environment and the fans who support their teams. No one understands this audience better than Gfinity."

Dite added that Arup was singularly well placed to collaborate on the project due to their extensive experience in sports architecture.

Garry Cook, executive chairman of Gfinity, said: "We will draw on our experiences of owning and managing Europe's first esports arena in London and engage with our community, which numbers tens of millions of passionate esports players and fans, to hear what they have to say. The final design will be informed from the ground up."

The project comes after increased interest amongst game publishers, rights holders and sports franchises for dedicated esports facilities after a huge increase in popularity has seen the number of people competing and watching esports grow by 17% year-on-year.

Global gaming and esports communities number 1.9bn and 368m respectively, according to Newzoo’s 2018 global esports market report.

Gfinity’s shares were down 1.14% at 10.88p at 1233 BST.