The Vedomosti publication drew attention to the fact that yesterday’s financial report of the VK holding for 2022 contains details of the sale of the Russian esports club Virtus.pro.
Image source: Virtus.pro
The fact that Virtus.pro is no longer an asset of VK was indicated on its website in September 2022 by the ESforce holding owned by the company. On the same day, the Armenian businessman Aram Karamakunyan became the owner and general director of the club.
At that stage, the details of the transaction were not disclosed, but, as it became known from the VK report, Virtus.pro was sold for 174 million rubles (the book value of the asset was 161 million), 13 million of which were recognized by the holding as profit.
Virtus.pro at the LAN-final of the Warface VK Play Cup 2 tournament
According to experts interviewed by Vedomosti, it is not easy to make money on eSports under the sanctions, which is why VK is getting rid of its eSports assets for “much less than the original deal” money.
Konstantin Sakhnov, the founder of the Vengeance Games studio, believes that against the background of VK’s previous investments in the esports sector, the amount of 174 million rubles looks “insignificant”.
Nikolay Petrosyan
In December 2022, Nikolai Petrosyan, former top manager of ESforce, replaced Karamakunan as the CEO of Virtus.pro. Since the beginning of 2023, the club has been representing Armenia, not Russia, at international eSports tournaments.
Virtus.pro was founded in 2003 and is currently in the top 10 clubs in the world in terms of the amount of prize money earned (over $18 million). At the moment, the team has lineups for Dota 2, CS:GO, PUBG Mobile, Warface and other games.
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