ESL Sold to Saudi investment group

According to the German newspaper Handelsblatt and the Sports Bussiness Journal, tournament organizer ESL and matchmaking platform Faceit have been sold to Savvy Gaming Group, which is backed by a Saudi investment group the Public Investment Fund (PIF). The deal is reported to be worth around $1.5B. The companies will merge to form the ESL Faceit Group.

Founded in 2000, ESL has been part of the Swedish media company Modern Times Group since 2015. The deal would see the company become owned by an investment firm backed by the Saudi Government for a reported sum of $1B.

Faceit was founded in 2012 and has remained privately owned since. The third-party matchmaking platform is being sold for a reported $500M.

The PIF has been making a number of big investments in sports lately. They acquired Football club Newcastle United and are reportedly in talks with Inter Milan and Olympique Marseille.