Esports sportsbook Rivalry announces mass layoffs as company weighs options to stay afloat

On Friday, Rivalry Corp., a traditional sports and esports sportbook and sponsor of Counter-Strike 2 events including the launders LAN event series, announced a large-scale reduction in their workforce, with James Fudge of the Esports Advocate reporting that "the company [has] laid off all of its staff currently under contract."

The mass layoffs within the Canadian company come after an extended period of volatility and under-performance as the board of directors have announced plans to pause player activities and explore "asset-level transactions, corporate transactions, restructuring initiatives"

The layoffs at Rivalry follow a sustained collapse of the company's stock on the Toronto-based TSXV exchange, with RVLY losing more than 99% of its value over the past five years while trading at 0.01 CAD (~0.007 USD) at the time of publication.

Rivalry positioned itself in its marketing as a sportsbook and casino focused on Gen Z and under 30 audiences, with initiatives targeting esports audiences, the cryptocurrency market, and Web3.

In the esports space they previously worked with Mohan "launders" Govindasamy on his launders LAN events, with Do Not Peek Entertainment on the Rivalry Cash Clash event, and were a sponsor of Fnatic for a number of years, announcing a six-figure deal with the esports organization as recently as 2021.