Lord Bendtner acquires Team Singularity, makes other esports investments – Esports News UK

Image courtesy of Blast

Former professional footballer Nicklas Bendtner (aka Lord Bendtner) has acquired 100% of Danish esports organisation Team Singularity.

The Dane, who played for the likes of English Premier League club Arsenal, Wolfsburg and others, announced his retirement from football three years ago.

Now hes making moves in esports. Hes set up an esports-focused investment and management company called Legendary Gaming Group, as reported by Ivan imi for Esports Insider.

The group has invested in New Breed Agency, Legendary Arena and a yet-unnamed esports and gaming brand, according to the publication. It says its revolutionising esports with cutting-edge gaming experiences, elite talent development, and thrilling events.

I am really pleased with the team we have assembled at Legendary and look forward to being part of something bigger in an industry I am fascinated by.

Lord Bendtner is joined at Legendary Gaming Group by Team Singularity founder Atle Stehouwer, Tricked Esport founder Morten Jensen, Stephen Shine and Jonas Rosbech.

Both Team Singularity and Tricked have competed in the UK/Nordics League of Legends NLC, with Tricked closing down last year.

Singularity had also been around in the early days of UK LoL, from as early as 2017, in the old ESL UK Premiership.

The news comes a few months after Singularity teased an announcement set for August 1st 2024.

Team Singularity founder Atle Stehouwer told Esports Insider: For the past two years, after being passive in Team Singularitys operations, Ive been in talks with numerous potential partners about various opportunities in the market and potentially starting something new.

Im thrilled and honoured to have found a proper home for Team Singularity under the Legendary Gaming Group wings and to have been able to bring a strong ownership group together to form the foundation of Legendary Gaming Group.

Lord Bendtner added: I am really pleased with the team we have assembled at Legendary and look forward to being part of something bigger in an industry I am fascinated by. My own role in the company will be an active one, but what the exact title will be is not 100% decided yet, as it also depends on what roles the other sports profiles coming in will have.

Its not Bendtners first time in esports, either. During covid, he began playing CSGO, and became the owner of a small CSGO team called Prosapia Esport. In November 2022, he participated in a showmatch at theBlast PremierFall Finals at theRoyal Arenain Copenhagen, playing on Team Denmark (pictured, top).

As an editor of an esports news site thats also an Arsenal fan, itd be a disservice of me if I ignored this.

Bendtner is a confident man. He once said back in 2010: If you ask me if I am one of the best strikers in the world, I say yes, because I believe it.

While he was a good player, his goal tallies werent up there with the Messis and Ronaldos at the time, and his ability was questioned. It didnt help that Bendtner was at Arsenal during part of our banter era, where we were trophyless for some time.

I feel a bit sorry for him, because the reaction to these quotes was overblown, and the context around it was pretty much ignored.

As well as this, he was once with Caroline Luel-Brockdorff, who hails from Danish royalty.

He started to get the nickname Lord Bendtner, with many fans responding to his social media posts simply with LORD.

In March 2015, Danish celebrity tabloidSe og Hrbought him a square foot of land in Scotland to bestow him the title of Lord, and according to his agent, he considered it a fun gimmick.

The rest is history.

Ive also read a lot of Arsenal books over the years, and Bendtners is by far the most entertaining. He doesnt hold back.

Hes also got into some trouble over the years, with one example being when he was fined 80,000 by Uefa for his goal celebration against Portugal, where he lowered his shorts to reveal Paddy Power boxer shorts.

Hes certainly a personality.

Bendtner also has the record for the fastest goal scored by a substitute in Premier League history (1.8 seconds after the ball was kicked into play). It was against Tottenham, on December 22nd 2007.

Lets enjoy that goal again, for old times sake.

Arsene Wenger, Arsenals former manager, who was talking at the end of the above video, was recently announced as an ambassador for a new $100,000 FIFAe World Cup of Football Manager esports tournament.

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.

As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late 80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple usually just covering the occasional press release because of this conflict of interest.

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Lord Bendtner acquires Team Singularity, makes other esports investments - Esports News UK