Astralis publish “satisfactory” 2020 finances with $8.5m loss

Danish esports organization Astralis have revealed their financial performance for 2020 through their newly-published annual report.

Astralis Group, the company behind the well-known brand that competes in multiple titles, is a public company and thus have to post their financial results publicly.

Competing in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, and FIFA, the org is said to have generated total revenue of $8.26m — a figure that was “in line with expectations” according to the report. Their CS:GO division brought in almost $6m of revenue, with their LoL and FIFA teams generating around $1.3m and $240k respectively.

However, despite raising millions of dollars, things don’t appear to be too great on the surface. The group saw a total loss of $8.5m and posted an EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) of -$2.3m.

The group have invested in multiple leagues, acquiring long-term slots across two of esports’ biggest titles: Counter-Strike and League of Legends. They hold spots in CS:GO circuits BLAST and ESL Pro League, as well as the premier European League of Legends competition LEC.

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Astralis Group used to operate three brands — Astralis, Origen, and Future FC — but consolidated the teams under the Astralis brand in September 2020. Just one month later, their League of Legends squad was fined almost $6,000 by Riot Games due to alleged missed salary payments and “conduct unbecoming of an LEC Team Manager.”

They have an interesting revenue split for the year, according to the report. 66% of revenue generated came from sponsorship, 27% from prize money and league revenue, 3% from merchandise, 2% from royalties, and the remaining 2% from “other revenue.”

 

Astralis Group established numerous new commercial partnerships throughout the year, undoubtedly helping them to minimize losses during a year where offline events were postponed or outright canceled. They also sold CS:GO player Patrick ‘es3tag’ Hansen to Cloud9 in a $2.1m deal just six months after signing him.

They announced deals with the likes of wearable tech company Garmin, Universal Music Group, sports brand Hummel, audio brand Bang & Olufsen, bank app Lunar, market search firm Userneeds, and analytics firm Cavea.