ESL FACEIT Group: Growing Beyond Play (Savvy Games Series #1)

In 2022, ESL Gaming and FACEIT merged to create one of esports’ most important companies: ESL FACEIT Group (EFG). This operating group, fully owned by Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group, manages esports tournaments (via ESL), gaming festivals (via Dreamhack), a platform for superior PvP play (via FACEIT), and gaming audience management tools (via Vindex, acquired this year).

In this episode, we chat with EFG’s co-CEOs, Craig Levine and Niccolo Maisto, about how this company came together, how esports has evolved in recent years, and what it’s like operating within Savvy Games. We also discuss how merging has unlocked a larger vision with new growth opportunities, EFG’s aspiration to grow “beyond play,” and what both leaders learned from integrating different teams and managing esports’ never-ending change over the past few years.

This episode is also part one in a three part series about Savvy Games Group, which continues to deploy its $38 billion in dedicated capital. In Part 2, we’ll chat with Javier Ferreira, co-CEO of Scopely, which was acquired by Savvy in July, and Part 3 will be a discussion with Brian Ward, Savvy Games Group’s CEO. Stay tuned!

We’d also like to thank Windwalk for making this episode possible! Windwalk builds digital communities and the technologies necessary to accelerate them through their flagship software, Harbor. To learn more, simply head to https://www.harbor.gg/ 

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Sound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.