Australian-based esports organisation Tainted Minds has announced that they’ve been acquired by a number of significant private investors and have rebranded to ICON Esports. The organisation will now call Sydney home as they develop their high performance training centre locally however have emphasised ICON management will continue to be based in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide.

ICON Esports has also listed a few of it’s investors with background and experience from traditional sports, marketing, media, finance and more:

  • 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

“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.

Recently, Tainted Minds hosted its first public activation in December 2018 at the Miranda Skyzone to help educate and teach young kids and their parents about the benefits and possibly career options within esports. With the event being successful, ICON Esports is looking to further roll out the initiative throughout Australia.