TBD: Beyond the Basement

In our first interview of 2022, Trev and Dan sat down with The SimGrid's Head of Commercial, Josh Martin.

SimGrid is a place for amateur and professional sim racers to compete against fellow drivers in leagues and endurance events. A place that has grown as sim racing has become hugely popular during the pandemic.

In a wide ranging chat we cover everything from non-endemic brands moving into the space, to whether a future F1 champion could be found from sim racing.

We're back for another year and looking forward to making it the best one yet! Trev, Ben and Dan join up once again to go through what is going to be big this year - for the curious amongst you they include;

What do you think? Do you agree with Trev and Ben's predictions? Let us know what you think on our LinkedIn page.

We'll be back every week with a new show. Do give us a follow, subscribe or like wherever you can (please!)

TBD.

The week we go guestless and instead offer twenty minutes of podcasting gold as Trev, Ben and Dan discuss primarily Ubisoft, and a move into NFTs that has generated headlines such as;

"Ubisoft Quartz is just NFT snake oil"

and

"Ubisoft's NFTs are a new shade of beige"

But was it really such a terrible idea, or a good idea that was packaged all wrong? Listen for some great insights into the whole drama.

And also we touched on the move by Meta (Facebook) with their US launch of Horizon Worlds, their big move into the metaverse, and what it could mean for the average gamer (and worker) out there. Another fascinating area that we're only just scratching the surface on (listen to last week's episode with Eric Londré for a deep dive into this).

And there was a mini book review as we talked Ready Player One, and its sequel Ready Player Two - and there is a great recommendation of one to read from Trev towards the end. 

If you enjoy this, then do make sure you take a listen through our archive and give us a like, subscribe or a follow.

Thanks! TBD.

This week's guest is Erik Londré, CEO of Karta, which specialises in experiential marketing in the metaverse. 

Erik has come from an events background, where he helped Fnatic raise the bar as Head of Events until 18 months ago.  But with the advent of COVID, the events industry took a major hit and opportunities in the space were much reduced. But where one door shuts, another can open just as quickly. Now he can be found helping brands make sense of the 'metaverse', one of the newest and most hyped trends of 2021. 

We go back to basics to find out what the metaverse is all about, why brands are now seriously looking at the space, and who is doing it right and wrong (it's still very much a test field, but think Nikeworld and VANS playground in Roblox).

You can find Erik on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Thanks for listening, follow/subscribe to get your weekly dose of all things esports & gaming in the UK and Ireland.

TBD. 

This week Trev spoke to Patrik Jackiewicz, Senior Partnerships Manager at Stockholm-based startup Challengermode. He made the move mid-pandemic from London to Sweden and has been working with brands in helping them to set up competitions with the maximum of ease, with so much of what they do automated. Meaning human resource to run an event is kept to a minimum. 

Make sure you listen to find out more on this exciting startup, and how they are adapting now that it's not 100% online events, as we've seen in recent times, and in-person events are coming back in a big way.

See you next week for another great interview, and if you enjoyed this then make sure you check out our archive. And follow/subscribe so that you are updated when a new episode drops. 

Or follow us on social media - find TBD Beyond the Basement on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/tbd-beyond-the-basement/ 

Thanks!

TB&D. 

After mentioning this esports team in every podcast that we have done, it was great to finally get someone in from the team to talk to us. Grant Rousseau was a fantastic guest and even managed to settle a bet between Ben and Trev as to the origins of the Finn Harps shirt sponsorship - it's a great story and worth listening to see who was right. 

In this episode we cover the team's commitment to building a grassroots base, the position he sees the UK esports scene as being in compared to the rest of the world, the pressures of being a public company and also having David Beckham as an investor, and what the future looks like for Guild Esports. 

Thanks to Grant for coming onto the show. Make sure you follow his great posts on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/grant-rousseau/) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/GrantRous).

TBD is brought to you in partnership with Buzz.ie

This week we take a pause on the interviews, though we have some great ones already 'in the can', to find out what the news was from the recent 'ESI London' event held at Boxpark Wembley. One that our own Trev Keane was able to fly over for and hosted a panel on the topic of "Eyes on the Prize - How to seize the attention of the streaming generation" - and enjoyed being able to meet people... actually in-person!

There is lots to cover in this one (including Trev's terrible panel hosting jokes), and to finish it off Dan and Ben go through their favourite stories from the last week - the much talked about 'Metaverse' and also Oats Overnight entering the world of esports sponsorship. 

Tune in every week for the latest news and interviews from the UK & ireland gaming/esports industry. 

TBD.

We've been wanted to get Chris Kissack onto TBD for a while now and it was great to finally get him on a call. He's been a gaming enthusiast most of his life, and has managed to turn his passion into his job.

His corporate expertise has helped to develop the esports scene in the Isle of Man, an island that has an independent government from the UK and is famed in the eGaming (betting) space, as well as IT and sports (Isle of Man TT race for example). 

We got Chris's views on a number of subjects, from the approach the island has taken with its sponsorship of esports team X7, what they've learnt from the gaming industry and even some views on the rise of crypto in the industry. Some nuggets in here that you won't want to miss.

Follow Chris for his great insights on Twitter - https://twitter.com/ChrisKissack - and LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriskissack

For this episode, Dan and Ben spoke with Conor Barron from An Post, what you might see as a traditional company that is Ireland’s leading supplier of postal, e-commerce and financial services. And Colm Roche from Core Sponsorship, who have worked closely with An Post on their move into the world of esports. 

An Post launched their new product, Money Mate, which is aimed very much at that younger gaming generation, and teamed up with Legion Esports to form an Irish initiative is aiming to catch up with the growing global interest in esports by developing top talent and introducing a new league.

The Legion eSports series will involve five events over the next 12 months with a prize pool of €5,000. We spoke to Conor and Colm about how this initiative came about, the challenges faced from within at such a traditional brand, and what they see as the future for esports and gaming for the company.

We hope you enjoy this episode. Have a listen to the others we have put together this year, and we'll be getting more interviews and chats out over the coming weeks. 

This week Trev, Dan and Ben get together to chat about some of the highlights from gaming and esports in UK and Ireland. And there was a lot to go through!

If you enjoy this podcast then do check out our previous interviews and chats. We'll be back very soon with the next episode, so make sure you subscribe to make sure it appears on your list.