Mercia Technologies moves into football management

HENLEY-in-Arden’s Mercia Technologies has made a £1m investment in Soccer Manager, a Preston-based developer of online football management games.
 
Soccer Manager was founded in 2004 and launched the multi-player Soccer Manager Worlds a year later. Since its launch, Soccer Manager Worlds has had ten million registrations and is currently played in 39 languages.
 
Soccer Manager will use the investment to fund the development of its latest title, Soccer Manager 2015, which was launched in February. Specifically, the funds will be utilised for marketing, further game development and translation of Soccer Manager 2015 into Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
 
Soccer Manager 2015 is a single-player, multi-platform game that allows users to access their saved games from multiple devices.  Users can ‘pick up and play’ against computer-simulated opponents, whereas Soccer Manager Worlds requires ‘real’ people to play.
 
Soccer Manager is the latest direct investment by Mercia into a new “emerging star” from the group’s third party funds managed by its wholly owned subsidiary, Mercia Fund Management.
 
Mark Payton, chief executive officer of Mercia Technologies, said: “Soccer Manager is a scalable business that addresses the global and expanding market for soccer-based gaming, which has an estimated value of more than $100bn worldwide and an annual compound growth rate of 8%.
 
“The founders of Soccer Manager have been developing the business for the past nine years and are clearly passionate about two things: soccer and technology.  We are delighted to be working with them as they move to the next stage of product development with their most recently launched title, Soccer Manager 2015.”
 
Steven Gore, Operations Manager for Soccer Manager, said: “2015 will be a very exciting year for Soccer Manager, as we continue to develop our product portfolio.
 
“Mercia’s investment in our business, as well as the expertise in the digital and gaming sectors provided by their senior team, will provide strong support to our business as we expand our offering globally.”