Enthusiast Gaming to Acquire Icy Veins, Expanding its Owned and Operated Platform

Icy Veins is Enthusiast Gaming’s largest affiliated fan community

Acquisition expected to be immediately accretive with further revenue and margin expansion opportunity

TORONTO, March 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enthusiast Gaming Holdings Inc. (“Enthusiast Gaming” or the “Company”) (TSX: EGLX)(OTCQB: ENGMF)(FSE: 2AV), the largest gaming media platform in North America, reaching over 300 million monthly video game and esports fans worldwide, announced today that it has entered into a binding term sheet to acquire Vedatis SAS (“Vedatis”), owners of Icy Veins (www.icy-veins.com), for €7 million (approximately US$8.3 million) in cash and stock, plus an earnout subject to certain milestones being achieved. Completion of the acquisition is conditional upon Enthusiast Gaming and Vedatis entering into a definitive agreement as well as the satisfaction of a number of customary conditions, including due diligence and TSX approval and is expected to close in Q2 2021.

Founded in 2011 by Damien Thivolle and Vlad-Matei Mladin, Icy Veins is one the largest independent Activision Blizzard fan communities generating over 3 billion lifetime views of content. The platform provides news and strategy guides for leading franchises like World of Warcraft, Diablo, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone and Overwatch. World of Warcraft, originally released in 2004, has had eight major expansion pack releases since its initial launch, the most recent being Shadowlands in 2020 which sold 3.7 million copies in the first day, one of the fastest selling PC games in history. Diablo was released in 1997 and continues to have a loyal fan base across three major releases. Diablo IV is currently in production. Damien Thivolle and Vlad-Matei Mladin will be staying on long term to continue to operate Icy Veins.

Enthusiast Gaming has worked with Icy Veins, monetizing its advertising traffic since 2017. In that time, Enthusiast Gaming has seen the Icy Veins community grow to become the largest in the Company’s affiliated network. In 2020, Enthusiast Gaming generated approximately US$2.4 million in advertising revenue for Icy Veins, of which approximately 75% was paid to its owners under a commercial representation agreement. Following the completion of the acquisition of Icy Veins, Enthusiast Gaming will retain 100% of the advertising revenue but will also immediately unlock the ability to start monetizing the Icy Veins community through the Company’s differentiated flywheel, which includes You Tube channels, subscriptions, content licensing, and merchandise/ecommerce.