Three years ago the Swedish esports company G-Loot received substantial investments from major backers such as Swedbank Robur. Despite that funding, the company never managed to establish a sustainable business and has been burdened by heavy losses. Its owners have now made the difficult decision to place the business into bankruptcy.
“We have done absolutely everything we could to find a solution,” says CEO Johan Persson.
Unfortunately, the business model proved unsustainable. At the start of 2023 the platform was relaunched under the new brand Stryda. The most significant change was that users no longer competed for real money but for in‑game recognition or prizes.
Now, less than a year later, Stryda has reached its end. The owners have decided to put the company into bankruptcy, a move confirmed by CEO Johan Persson.
“This is of course painful. We had to face reality: the market simply isn’t there in the same way, and investors’ appetite for risk is at record lows. We have done everything possible to find a solution, but the board concluded there was no way to create more shareholder value by continuing to invest, so they decided to pull the plug,” he explains.
The company has had virtually no revenue, and during the first three quarters of this year operating losses totaled SEK 62.3 million. By the end of September only SEK 23 million remained in the bank.
In June the owners of G-Loot instructed an investigation into whether external financing could be raised from new investors or whether the company could be sold outright. Persson says the company worked with UBS throughout that process, but it did not yield a successful outcome.
“We presented the case to more than 100 financial and strategic investors and potential buyers. We progressed very far with some, and we consistently felt it was close. But this week we received a rejection in an advanced process, which led the board to make this decision.”
Formally it is the subsidiary Stryda AB that will no longer be financed by the owners and is entering bankruptcy, while the parent company, G-Loot Global Esports AB, which currently has no active operations, will remain in existence.
“The platform and about 45 employees are housed in the subsidiary,” Persson says, adding his gratitude for “all the hard work the employees have put in.”
When the bankruptcy proceedings begin, an appointed bankruptcy administrator will seek to realize as much value as possible, for example by selling Stryda’s assets. That could potentially provide some relief to the parent company’s owners.
“We have a technically advanced, well‑functioning platform and a significant user base. I believe there is considerable value in the company, but there must also be a buyer on the other side who can unlock it,” Persson states.
At the time of the bankruptcy decision G-Loot had only two board members: chairman Jonas Eriksson, who also chairs the First North‑listed game developer Mag Interactive, and board member Håkan Jerner, commercial director for the Nordics at gaming company Betsson.