Orangutan recently released Episode 7 of the “Mic On Kar” podcast, which featured Yash Bhanushali – Orangutan, Animesh “Thug” Agarwal – S8UL, Dr. Rushindra Sinha – Global Esports, Rohit Jagasia – Revenant Esports. During this podcast, Thug made a surprising revelation about S8UL Esports. He revealed that the organization, despite being so successful, is not currently a profitable entity.

Thug Explains Why S8UL Esports Is Not Profitable

Along with S8UL Esports, Thug also owns 8Bit Creatives, which is a talent management agency for gaming content creators. Thug has been working on 8Bit Creatives for the last five years, and has established it as a successful company. Notably, it manages numerous popular gaming content creators in the Indian gaming community.

In the Episode 7 of “Mic On Kar”, Thug openly addressed the financial status of S8UL, providing a rare glimpse into the inner workings of an esports organization. He stated, “I have said about on record. S8UL is not profitable. Of course, it’s not. It’s the talent business (8Bit Creatives) that I built that is profitable. If I look at S8UL as an organization, it’s not profitable.” 

Thug explained the main reasons why S8UL Esports is not yet profitable despite being so successful. He stated that although there are multiple brands in the industry, S8UL Esport does not want to undervalue itself. He expressed a reluctance to undervalue his organization or compromise on the value it brings to the table. “There are brands, butI don’t want to undervalue myself. I will wait for five years, but I want full value for money when me, Goldy, and Mortal have invested for the last four years. So either I would have to undercut my prices and try to manage capital from other sources. But I don’t want to do that,” he said.

Thug Explains the Main Challenge S8UL Esports Faces

Thug pointed out that the main challenge lies in convincing brands to meet these valuation expectations. He implied that although brands have money to invest in marketing, they are hesitant to invest hefty amounts in the gaming and esports industry. However, S8UL Esports is well aware of the value it puts on table, and does not want to undervalue itself or the industry. “Brands don’t have enough money to pay us. I don’t want to underrate esports, I don’t want to undervalue esports, I don’t want to undervalue my organization. To be honest, if I’m sitting here and talking about esports, we are not profitable, we are at a heavy loss. I won’t say that we are completely burning it because we are doing merch and obviously there is sometimes sponsorship in content.” He added, “When I have always spoken to brands and pitched them esports and I have asked for the money that I want… It’s not like they don’t have money. If you want a smaller check, they’ll readily give us. But if you want a big ball check, then they are not ready to give and so we are burning. Sitting here, I would say I still have a very controlled burn as compared to others.”

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