Freshly-listed World Chess sees revenue slip after Armageddon series but gaming firm still confident

Online platform World Chess reported a slip in revenue for the year ended December, but said it was still confident in delivering its growth strategy. 

The freshly-listed firm, which organises chess championships in both the US and UK, said revenue fell slightly to €2.3m (£1.97m) down from €2.7bn (£2.3m) throughout the year. 

Word Chess blamed a lack of sponsorship for its new Armageddon tournament series for the dip. 

It said: “This reduction in tournament revenue followed the Group’s strategic decision to launch Armageddon, its own proprietary tournament series, rather than continue to solely promote FIDE tournaments. 

“Whilst the Armageddon was a great success in terms of participation and media coverage, as a new event series it does not yet command the same level of sponsorship as the FIDE Grand Prix events which took place in 2022.”

The firm said this decision also led to a decline in gross profit, falling to €179k (£153k) from €705k (€604k) last year. 

It added: “This strategy led to a reduction in the average costs associated with hosting each of the five Armageddon series events, however with five events taking place in 2023 compared to the three which took place in 2022 the overall cost of sales increased by four per cent, this together with the 16 per cent fall in revenue resulted in a 75 per cent reduction in gross profit.”

World Chess  landed on the London Stock Exchange‘s main market last April in a move that has priced the gaming and promotion company at £41.7m. 

Since then, The group has partnered with 33 television networks, including Bloomberg and CNBC, to broadcast its Armageddon Championship highlights globally, which it said made the Armageddon Championship Series one of the most televised chess events.

Ilya Merenzon, chief of World Chess, said: “World Chess has delivered on several major projects during 2023, which have significantly enhanced our brand proposition. Our first chess club successfully opened in Berlin and hosted the finals of the Armageddon series. This new chess format has captured the attention of chess enthusiasts on a global scale, with match content shown across 33 different broadcast networks.

“We made an important investment in the FIDE Online Arena chess platform to upgrade the overall player experience. FIDE 2.0 went live towards to the end of 2023 and has been well received by our community and subscriptions have continued to rise.

He added: “As we advance through 2024, we remain committed to expanding the World Chess ecosystem. We will be launching new initiatives associated with the FIDE Online Arena to help drive growth, whilst attracting new commercial partners. We look forward to bringing news of our progress throughout the rest of 2024.”