Gamers8 had a $45 million prize pool. It was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Gamers8 had a $45 million prize pool. It was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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Why ESL Faceit is still bullish on esports for the long term | The DeanBeat

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 11 min

A year and a half ago, Savvy Games Group formed and acquired esports platforms ESL and Faceit in hopes of creating an esports powerhouse. Then Savvy, owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, also picked up a part of Vindex focused esports data and production.

At Gamescom, I met with Ralf Reichert, chairman of ESL Faceit Group (EFG), and Michele Attisani, chief business development officer.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.