100 Thieves has announced that it is “spinning off” two of its projects, with energy drink Juvee and the 100 Thieves Game Development Studio set to longer operate under the 100T banner, and made several staffing cuts in the process.
100 Thieves is one of the leading organizations in the esports space, spearheaded by former Call of Duty professional Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag following his retirement from competitive play.
In that time 100 Thieves has had success in the franchised League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), and Call of Duty League (CDL) among other esports, as well as running supremely successful entertainment and apparel arms.
In an attempt to diversify the company’s revenue streams, it has launched several projects in the past, but they now look to be offsetting energy drink Juvee and the 100 Thieves Game Development studio in order to “refocus” on its core business.
100 Thieves “spinning off” Juvee & Game Dev
In a statement posted by 100 Thieves President & COO John Robinson revealed plans to “spin off” Juvee and the 100 Thieves Game Development studio, and reduce the size of the 100 Thieves team in the process.
He explained: “We’re making these decisions because we believe it’s time for 100 Thieves to refocus on our core business and do less, better.”
Elaborating on that, Robinson said: “As we look ahead, Matt and I believe there is a clear path forward for 100 Thieves – we need to refocus on the original promise we made to our fans: championship esports, great content, and an apparel brand they are proud to wear.”
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During the esports franchising era, we saw tremendous growth in our esports business & our brand and were fortunate to be able to make investments beyond that core. As the economic landscape has changed over the last two years, the growth of our business did not keep pace with…
— John Robinson (@RohnJobinson) November 2, 2023
Going forward, Juvee and the Game Studio will have new majority owners. 100 Thieves will continue to have a small minority ownership in each, but both companies will be independent.
100 Thieves layoffs
As mentioned in Robinson’s statement, this move meant that there were job reductions at 100 Thieves. We spoke with Robinson, who confirmed that the overall staff changes is roughly 20%, the majority of which is related to the Juvee and Game Dev spin-offs.
Some staff members have already announced the loss of their job, including long-time designer ‘Seso’ and head of social media Micah Kulish.
Kulish stated in a Twitter post: “I am no longer with hundred thieves. I spend most of my time making things for the internet, but I am not really great with the personal stuff.this is a special organization. can’t say enough about the creativity and passion the teams pour into all they do.”
Juvee was first launched in October 2022, just months after 100 Thieves announced that it was working on a video game in May 2022.
With 100 Thieves pivoting to a more renewed focus specifically on esports, entertainment, and apparel, it will be interesting to see whether its teams can deliver results and how its content and apparel arms can grow.