Deal profile | Gadens advises e-sports Guru Luke Millanta as he joins Hive Gaming in their exciting e-sports venture

Gadens has advised former professional e-sports gamer Luke Millanta, in a deal which saw the virtual goods trading and data analytics platforms that he had developed under his business Brackenwood Systems, being acquired by Hive Gaming. As part of the deal, Luke joins the online gaming company as their new Chief Technology Officer.

Luke had previously held the positions of Chief Data Scientist and Chief Information Officer at FirstWave Cloud Technology (ASX: FCT), where at the time, he was the youngest CIO at an ASX-listed company.

Hive Gaming is controlled by rich lister brothers, Jack and Michael Wu, who joined the e-sports company in 2019 after their successful sale of part of Australian supplement and beauty product company Nature’s Care the previous year. Their plans for Hive Gaming are substantial with their first new product, Necta, slated for release in Q1 FY2021. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated home isolation measures are proving a boon for Australia’s fast-growing e-sports industry, and by acquiring Millanta’s IP and having Millanta join as a shareholder and as part of their management team, Hive Gaming is working towards an exciting series of product announcements.

Gadens was engaged by Millanta to advise on the entire transaction including the transactional documents, IP assignment documentation, and of course documents governing the parties’ ongoing relationship.

Asked about his lawyers’ assistance, Luke said: “The lawyers at Gadens are incredibly professional and their turn around and responsiveness are exceptional. I could not have negotiated and closed such an amazing deal without them.”

Practice groups involved: Intellectual Property and Technology, and Corporate Advisory groups.

Key team members: The team was led by partners Antoine Pace (Intellectual Property and Technology) and Michael Kenny (Corporate Advisory), supported by associate Kaleb Cox (Corporate Advisory) and lawyer Elizabeth Gregory (Corporate Advisory).

Matter significance: With e-sport and online gaming popularity skyrocketing in recent months, the acquisition of Brackenwood Systems and Luke Millanta’s expertise have positioned Hive Gaming for strong growth in the e-sports industry.