GAME Digital has announced that Craig Fletcher (aka Wizzo) is leaving the company.
He will leave his full-time role as SVP of esports and competitive gaming strategy at the end of this year.
However, he will ‘continue to support the company’s esport aspirations and development of Insomnia over the months and years ahead’, so it looks like he will have some kind of external consultancy/advisory role with the retailer going forwards.
Andy Dopson, currently head of GAME Belong, will assume the role of head of esports and Belong. He will continue to report directly to GAME CEO Martyn Gibbs.
Wizzo founded Multiplay over 20 years ago and joined GAME when the Group acquired Multiplay for £20 million back in 2015.
“I’d like to personally say a massive thank you to Craig for the energy, fun and vision he has brought to our business, and of course for the support and friendship that will continue way beyond today.”
Martyn Gibbs, GAME CEO
GAME sold the Multiplay brand and hosting division for £19m last month, but kept the events business and its associated IPs (i.e. Insomnia).
This means that Wizzo no longer has anything to do with the Multiplay brand he originally created, but it looks like he will be working on Insomnia/esports for GAME at some capacity in the future.
GAME CEO Martyn Gibbs said: “I’d like to personally say a massive thank you to Craig for the energy, fun and vision he has brought to our business, and of course for the support and friendship that will continue way beyond today.
“We are making good progress with our Belong, esports and competitive gaming strategy.
“Results from our Belong arenas and activities are encouraging, our arena competitive gaming tournament, Arena Clash, is now fully operational and the recently announced partnership with Activision for Call of Duty: World League at Insomnia demonstrates our unique ability to deliver through all elements of esports and competitive gaming.”
Last year, another UK esports veteran – Team Dignitas founder Michael “Odee” O’Dell – left Multiplay after almost seven years at the company.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
