GameSquare Holdings, the parent company of esports and gaming organisation FaZe Clan, is at risk of being delisted from the Nasdaq Stock Market after its share price remained below the $1.00 minimum listing requirement for several months.
As the time of writing, GameSquare’s stock (ticker: GAME) is trading at just $0.33, well under the threshold Nasdaq requires companies to maintain. To avoid being kicked off the exchange, the company is now asking its shareholders to approve a reverse stock split, a common move in the stock market designed to push the share price back above $1.00. The company also owns live streaming analytics company Stream Hatchet and UK-based talent agency Code Red Esports.
What’s the Problem? Nasdaq $1 Rule explained
Nasdaq, the digital stock market where people buy and sell shares of companies, best known for being the home of tech giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft, has a rule that’s often called the “$1 Rule” or the Minimum Bid Price Rule. In simple terms: any company listed on Nasdaq must keep its stock closing at $1.00 or higher. If the price stays below $1 for 30 straight trading days, Nasdaq sends the company a warning (called a deficiency notice) and gives it 180 days to fix the issue.
To fix it, the company’s stock needs to close at $1.00 or above for at least 10 consecutive trading days during that window. If it doesn’t manage that, Nasdaq can sometimes grant a second 180-day grace period, but only if the company still meets other listing requirements.
GameSquare has already been through this process:
- September 10, 2025: GameSquare received its first deficiency notice after its stock closed below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days.
- March 9, 2026: The first 180-day grace period expired.
- March 10, 2026: Nasdaq granted GameSquare a second 180-day extension, pushing the new deadline to September 7, 2026.
- April 22, 2026: GameSquare bought back nearly 2.3 million shares in that month alone. While the company stated the buyback was due to a “dislocation between intrinsic value and market value” (believing the stock was undervalued), the buyback potentially served a functional purpose directly related to the deficiency notice.
If GameSquare is unable to get its stock price back above $1 (and keep it there for 10 straight trading days) by the September 7, 2026 deadline, Nasdaq could possibly move to delist the company, meaning its shares would be removed from the exchange entirely.
Why does this rule exist in the first place? Nasdaq uses it to protect everyday investors from “penny stocks”, very cheap, high-risk shares that are more prone to sudden collapses or manipulation, and that often signal a company in financial trouble.
What’s GameSquare’s plan?
On July 2, 2026, GameSquare filed a document with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) called a PRE 14A, or preliminary proxy statement. In it, the company announced it will hold a Special Meeting of Stockholders on August 13, 2026, where it will ask shareholders to approve a reverse stock split.
A reverse stock split doesn’t change how much your investment is worth, it just changes how many shares represent that value. The company combines multiple existing shares into one new share, which pushes the price per share up proportionally.
For example:
- In a 1-for-2 split, if you owned 200 shares, you’d own 100 afterward.
- In a 1-for-8 split, if you owned 800 shares, you’d own 100 afterward.
In both cases, the total dollar value of your shares stays roughly the same right after the split, the stock price simply goes up to compensate for having fewer shares in circulation.
By carrying a reverse stock split, GameSquare wants the flexibility to raise its share price mainly to satisfy Nasdaq’s $1.00 minimum bid requirement and keep its listing.
The Esports Radar has reached out to GameSquare Holdings for comment, but the company had not replied by the time this article was published.
What happens next?
Shareholders will vote on the proposal at the special meeting on August 13, 2026. If approved, GameSquare’s board will have the power to choose a specific ratio and execute the reverse split.
If GameSquare fails to get its price above $1 and hold it there for the required 10 consecutive trading days by that date, Nasdaq’s staff would issue a delisting notice. The company would then have the option to appeal to a Nasdaq Hearings Panel, but there’s no guarantee that appeal would succeed.
For now, FaZe Clan’s parent company, which also owns remains listed and trading under the ticker GAME, but the clock is ticking toward a September deadline that could determine whether one of esports’ most recognisable brands stays on a major U.S. stock exchange.
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