ICON acquires leading Esports firm Tainted Minds

Today Tainted Minds announced that a number of significant private investors have acquired the Australian based esports organisation which will be rebranded to ICON Esports. The organisations headquarters will relocate to Sydney, as the firm develops its high performance training centre. As a sign of conviction, ICON management will continue to be based in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne & Adelaide giving it a true national presence.

The investors bring to the firm a broad range of experiences from traditional sports, logistics, technology, sports marketing, media and finance. The investors include;

Raymond Burke - Chairman of Highlanders Super Rugby

Edward Abbot - CEO of QMS Sport

Mathew Davey - Founder & CEO of Ticketdirect

Nathan Taylor - Managing Director for Capital Markets at Commonwealth Bank

Adrian Whittingham - Executive Director, Pinnacle Investment Management

As a sign of its commitment to the sector, Tainted Minds hosted its first public activation in December 2018 at Skyzone Miranda to educate young kids and their parents on the benefits and possible career opportunities within esports. Hundreds attended the successful event and through the ICONCreative program, this initiative will be rolled out to increase education and participation throughout Australia with a number of key partners committed for program.

“I am extremely excited that we can take our fans, players and partners on a journey to the next chapter of our story and also be involved in the evolution of our business. Having watched the landscape go through some big changes over the past five years, we understand the importance of adapting and scaling with that market growth. ICON embodies and represents our strive to deliver great things to not only our fans and communities but also our players and staff. Stay tuned for a few exciting announcements coming out over the next month.” said Nick Bobir Founder of Tainted Minds

“The new ownership group has a strong track record in building businesses and is committed to the strategy and vision of ICON. We have seen outstanding brands such as Cloud9 and Liquid be high performers with their teams as well as establishing other business initiatives to build their brand and community. Whilst we recognise Asia-Pacific is a smaller market, ICON has a clear strategy to become a leading esports firm in the region.” said Adrian Whittingham, one of the new investors behind ICON Esports