Thomas Martens

Mentor / Advisor

2024 - Current

Skape is a social marketplace for anyone to join the world of gaming and Esports. Skape is connecting the dots for more than 700 million hard core gamers.

Mentor / Advisor

2023

RENNSPORT is the 1st photorealistic racing simulation game on Unreal Engine 5. RENNSPORT creates the social platform for the future of digital motorsport, fostering an ecosystem where players, OEMS, Esports teams, content creators and collectors converge to breathe life into the Metaverse for car enthusiasts. Through a partnership with ESL, RENNSPORT has established the ESL RENNSORT Series - the pinnacle of racing.

Mentor / Advisor

2023

Blokball is a multiplayer street football game revolutionising the genre with its high-octane, competitive gameplay. Seamlessly merging traditional elements with cutting-edge digitial technology. Blokball carves out a niche in a market rich with some 3,5 billion football fans and some 3,3 billion gamers worldwide.

Founder & CEO

2021

Today´s Gecco Enterprises is in the market to help and advise ambitious businesses reach their next level of growth. Gecco hereby provides advisory and mentoring services, access to its network and helps on execution - commercially, strategically and investor related (fundraising). As we like to say: “We bring the grey hair to the table and we operate with a birds-eye-view”. Gecco Enterprises also provides advisory services for investors wanting to understand and get access to the markets of Thomas´ expertise (see Info above).

Industry Venture Director

2019

Since launching in 2019, Hiro has established itself as the leading UK / European VC in Video Games, Esports, Streaming and Digital Sports, the fastest growing tech sectors worth some USD 500 billion. Hiro’s LP base now includes some of the largest Games, Media and Technology strategics in the world, listed companies worth $ hundreds of billions. Hiro Capital I had its Final Close in August 2021 in the range between its original €100m target and the hard cap of €150m. The Fund is fully deployed, has invested in 21 announced deals and is on track to deliver its target MOIC of 4x - 5x for its investors. - www.hiro.capital. Our specific focus is on backing EU/EEA/UK entrepreneurs in this space, at the post-seed Series A and Series B stage, where there is a significant capital gap in Europe. Hiro Capital II has launched in May 2022 with a target of € 300m. Hiro Capital II has already made 14 investments deploying some € 55m. Final Close will be in May 2024.

Industry Venture Director

2019

Advisor to the Board and to the CEO

2022 - 2022

PlayerData is a sports data company, providing Team GPS Tracking and Analysis for athletes from amateur to professional levels. Our main sport is European football, a market, where we currently have some 150 clubs under contract. Our technology is easy to use and works on an affordable subscription model, giving athletes and coaches the ability to monitor load, enhance technique, and track performance. Founded in 2017, PlayerData is a fast-paced, forward-thinking sports technology company based in Edinburgh. We are the leaders in data analytics for grassroots and amateur sports, giving athletes in all stages of their game access to their performance data. GPS-led technology and a built in-house app allow us to provide an all-round service to teams and individuals in football, rugby, hockey, GAA and more. Our mission is to transform the way athletes train and bridge the gap between the amateur and professional games. 100% of your club can be on the same continously updating system. Having a round the clock service including phone support, a strong flexibility and agility combined with the ease of use of our app, the price being affordable and the fact its validated differentiates us from other market players.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

2012 - 2018

Gecco Enterprises / United Sportelligence Group is an Investment Holding that specialises in buy & build roll-up projects. Gecco thereby buys, aligns, consolidates and integrates successfully and complementary companies from specific sport related industries into a one-stop-shop to build market leading and game changing businesses. Gecco together with the respective managements of acquired companies leverages synergies between the targeted companies to offer better, more comprehensive and integrated services to the market, to develop new products and ultimately to help each company of the group to grow, inter alia by internationalization, new sports and new products. And certainly by providing additional financial support. The identified industries are in the international sports, media, sports data, sports betting and gaming (mobile games, online games, browser games) industries. A current roll-up is being executed in the sports data and sports betting industries. This venture is financially backed by a large Private Equity Investor who is committed to provide substantial funding to buy identified companies. By bringing together (roll-up) a group of complementary companies Gecco will establish a market leading and game changing business within the sports data and sports betting market. The new entity that is called United Sportelligence Group will be larger and more powerful than the sum of the individual companies to build a global leader in the space.

Co-Founder & Chairman, Investor

2011 - 2017

Co-Founder, Chairman and Investor in Iconicfuture. Iconicfuture is a digital matchmaking marketplace and rights licensing technology for the gaming and licensing industries. Iconicfuture is focused on unlocking and matching the powerful combination of high performance games and brands. The company thereby integrates and markets premium IP and licenses (e.g. Wembley Stadium, FC Barcelona, Paris Hilton, Star Trek) as virtual items into a multitude of games to reach the hundreds of millions of passionate consumers who every day play games online, on their tablet or smartphone and who buy such licenses in their virtual world. Our 360 degree service and proprietary licensing platform thereby allow simple brand-to-game matching, deal negotiation, asset approval and fully automated sales and royalty reporting. We reduce user-acquisition costs and increase engagement, retention and monetization in any game or app by delivering the most suitable branded content. Millions of branded items have already been sold through Iconicfuture, resulting in a significant increase in both game downloads and revenue. Through our extensive network of licensors and developers, we are able to match top entertainment brands (such as the Wembley Stadium) with the most suitable mobile games on the market (such as Goal United). Our versatile and experienced team of experts includes hands-on developers, gaming professionals, data specialists, creative minds and licensing specialists. Iconicfuture operates as first mover in the multi billion Euro virtual goods market.

Founder & CEO, Investor

2009 - 2012

Triumph Media Group is an international and innovative sports marketing and sports management company that specializes in media rights, sponsorship rights, digital media and brand strategy. As an incubator the company has innovatively developed new industry sectors such as platforming, the identification and commercial development of underdeveloped and under valued properties. As a result of its activities Triumph Media Group is also the incubator of Iconicfuture.

Founder & CEO

1996 - 2009

One of the leading international sports marketing companies that specialises in the international media rights and sponsoring rights business within European football. The company owned and managed rights to some 100 European football clubs including the likes of Juventus FC, FC Internazionale (Milan), Lazio Roma, SL Benfica, Rangers FC and many other clubs accross Europe and to 10 European football associations. Thomas sold 30% of the Company to Apax Partners in 1999 and subsequently 100% to the WPP Group plc in 2002. After the sale to WPP Thomas stayed for 7 years as CEO for Sports within WPP. Various joint ventures within the WPP Group have been created with leading Media and Advertising companies in London, Dubai and Singapore to leverage the synergies within the WPP Group for the sports licensing industry. The Company has expanded into other sports and has successfully marketed the worldwide media and sponsorsing rights to the Life Earth Concert in 2007.