At that time, Teemu was one of the best salespeople at the Elisa store in Raisio’s Mylly shopping centre, where he had already been working for nine years.
“I had enough experience of sales work to be very good. Good salespeople also earn good money, so I didn’t have any actual need to leave that fulfilling work. But I always said that I was missing something for the next step on my career”, remembers Teemu.
At the same time in 2017, a working group and pilot project were being set up at Elisa’s Helsinki headquarters to study whether there was good growth potential for esports to become a viable part of Elisa’s entertainment business. Thanks to his enthusiasm for gaming, Teemu asked to be part of the team.
Then one thing led to another, and today Teemu is Head of Elisa Esports, heading up a team focused on producing scalable esports broadcasting, tournaments and events for international markets.
Elisa Esports grew from an internal startup to a viable business operation
While the project was going on, esports had grown to become as popular as football or ice hockey. These days, many people who are interested in football or hockey only really pay attention to the large tournaments, but esports players and fans follow their sport’s matches weekly, or even daily. There was considerable growth in the sector and great potential, including from the business perspective.
Initially, Teemu worked on the Esports pilot project for a year, with the idea of returning to the store in Mylly once the project was over. But right from the start, the Elisa Esports project showed such great potential that the decision was made to keep it going. Teemu quickly became the development manager, and his days as the top salesperson in Raisio were behind him.
Elisa Esports began as an internal startup company. Since then, Teemu has been working in his dream job: growing the Esports business and turning that potential into reality.