Gentle Mates, the French esports organisation founded by streamers Squeezie, Gotaga, and Brawks, has invested in a new business: physical trading cards.
Instead of building a card game around dragons or monsters, Gentle Mates has built its game around its own history, with cards depicting moments from the club’s past.
As per the official website, Gentle Mates is selling their TCG in four different packs, each priced according to it’s contents (higher editions generally contain more cards or higher-rarity items). Based on the prices listed on Gentle Mates’ website in euros, with approximate US dollar conversions at current exchange rates:
- Essential Pack — €49 (~$53)
- Prestige — €99 (~$107)
- Legendary — €199 (~$215)
- Founder — €349 (~$377)
For this initial print run, every card will carry a “First Edition” stamp. Gentle Mates has said this stamp will not appear on any future reprint, which is a common way card game publishers create scarcity for early buyers.
Scarcity is just one piece of a larger business model. Trading card game companies make money in a few overlapping ways: selling sealed packs, releasing new sets over time to keep players buying, and building a secondary market where certain cards become valuable to collectors.
Gentle Mates isn’t the first esports company to step into this space. Riot Games, which owns several esports titles, has its own trading card game called Riftbound. In fact, Riot recently released a limited card pack in collaboration with South Korean esports organisation T1. Estimates for that limited-edition release put its gross revenue above $10 million, giving a sense of how large this kind of product can get when it’s tied to a well-known esports brand.
Another French esports organisation, Karmine Corp, has also invested in their tactical trading card game called Blue Rising. Similar to Gentle Mates, their TCG’s theme revolves around history, players, and iconic moments of the club.
Launching a standalone product like a card game gives an organisation a new revenue stream that isn’t necessarily tied to a team’s on-field performance or a sponsor renewing its contract. In that sense, Gentle Mates’ entry into trading cards can be read as a move to diversify how the club makes money beyond classic esports income sources such as sponsorship deals, media rights, and prize money.
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