DRX aims to be first Korean e-sports firm to go public with 2024 IPO

South Korea’s e-sports company DRX is aiming to become the first e-sports firm to list on the secondary bourse Kosdaq with its planned 2024 IPO.

The e-sports company manages four professional teams, including League of Legends (LoL), Valorant, Warcraft III and Tekken 7.   

DRX has operated the LoL team since the 2012 Season 2 LoL World Championship. The Korean team won the domestic tournament twice and came second once, and has also placed second at the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), an international tournament.

The LoL team will join the World Championship this year as the Korean representative, as it did in 2017 and 2020.

With some famous Korean e-sports players, DRX boasts more than 3.5 million followers on its social media accounts.

The e-sports company is strongly backed by Korean and overseas companies. Porsche selected DRX as its first e-sport sponsor recipient in December 2021 for a three-year term of sponsorship. Other sponsors include Korea’s Shinhan Bank, online bookstore Yes24, beverage company Red Bull and software firm Logitech.

The e-sports company is expanding its business model by selling merchandise and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based on intellectual property as well as launching training academies for aspiring pro gamers.

The global e-sports market will reach 3.4 trillion won ($2.5 billion) this year, expected to show more than a 20% compound annual growth rate, said DRX.

E-sports will be one of the 37 sports to be played at the Hangzhou Asian Games next year and is in talks to be a demonstration event at the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the US, e-sports media platform FaZe Clan was listed on the Nasdaq in July via a SPAC deal at $725 million.

DRX has a strong global fandom, highly regarded players, a system for discovering emerging players and diversified sales streams, which all back the potential of the 2024 listing, said Daishin Securities IPO department II head Yoon Jong-hyuk.  

Write to Ju-Hyun Lee at 2JuHyun@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.