Boston Celtics forward, Jonas Jerebko, just purchased the rights to the eSports club, Renegades.
Jonas Jerebko is among many professional/former athletes that have been financially investing into eSports. Shaquille O’Neal owns a stake in NRG eSports, as well as former MLB player’s, Jimmy Rollins and Alex Rodriguez. Rick Fox, former NBA player, owns Echo Fox. According to Mashable, the value of the eSports industry is $900 million.
Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles sold the team to Jerebko. The deal included a spot in the CounterStrike: Global Offensive WME/IMG Eleague and ESL. The cost of the purchase has not been disclosed.
The whole Renegades organization has been crumbling for a while now. The club was suspended from the League of Legends Championship Series by Riot. Mykles gave Chris Badawi a stake in the franchise. Badawi has been banned from Riot’s LCS because he was soliciting players under contract.
Jerebko is currently negotiating the contracts of all of the current CS:GO players. He is moving them to a house in Michigan and, more importantly, manning the organization with new coaches and management. He is rebuilding the CS:GO management because of past problems with the organization.
CS:GO is not the only game that Jerebko wants Renegades to compete in. He managed to also acquire Ground Zero, a Call of Duty team. They will be competing in this weekend’s Call of Duty World Championships in Los Angeles, CA. Renegades is looking to get back into League of Legends. ESPN says that they also want to put together an Overwatch and Halo roster, probably because these are two growing eSports markets.
There has been a lot of discussion lately about the stability of eSports players and their contracts. “There are some guys in this industry asking to do six-month contracts,” says Jerebko. “There isn’t stability in that.” Jerebko wants to grow this industry in the proper way because he believes in it’s financial stability. Professional athletes have more experience with things like this. To have them in eSports is very crucial to the growth of players and organizations. Jerebko’s seven year professional career will be good for an organization that has been stumbling for a while now.
