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Team-aAa : Good Afternoon Mister Coutant, thanks for meeting us. First of all can you introduce yourself, how did you succeed in life ?

Jean-Marie COUTANT : I’m a real estate promoter, I’m a self made man, I started with nothing and reached this with my own mediums. I started in the real estate business when I was 25 years old and maybe I’ve been luckier than others. I understood rapidly the banking system and managed to prosper with a small team of about 10 people. We subcontract everything, it’s expensive but we have a lot of freedom afterwards, especially on times of crisis when you need to cut the costs. I’m working with a lot of intermediary real estate agencies, only one marketing agent, three certified public accountants, one money manager, one work manager which oversees all the architects and one managing director. There is one officer for each pole which subcontracts everything else, we recently launched a senior branch. We do a lot of real estate trading in the Centre region, mostly around Orléans which is a very dynamic city, there is especially all the logistic platforms around Orléans which are in a strong growth.

 

How did you get into electronic sport ?

I got there by sport, I’m doing shooting sport, I’ve been world champion of ball trap in 2002 and in French team from 1998 to 2009. What attracted me was the proximity of both sports, we are in teams of four in ball trap. There is similarities with the shooting federation, I’m attracted by the financial part (it’s an investment from Groupe Coutant Finances) for an international development.

 

There is multiple federations in Ball Trap, the Shooting French Federation and the Ball Trap French Federation, which will eventually merge, like electronic sport should do. The “parcours” is the most technical category because all trajectories are possible, unfortunately it is not available at Olympic Games. My son also does Ball Trap at a high level and is interested by video games, by the way, he follows the development of the ESWC brand very closely.

 

What first conclusion do you draw from the event ?

I discovered many things during those 8 months spent with the brand, on a communication level I said that given what I’ve seen at Disney we can do much better. I waited to see what it was like, I’ve seen what worked, what didn’t work, we’ll use that experience next year. I have a lot of questions to ask myself until August 25th, we’ll do a press release around this date on what we want to do next year.

 

We’re invited in Korea for the eStars Seoul where Gregorio (NSP Manager) and I will hold a keynote on what we want do develop through eSport. There is a timeline to establish which is not clearly defined yet. We’ll do the balance sheets, once it will be final, I’ll decide if I want to continue with Stéphane Cosse or no. I noted a lot of points, the split event was a major strategic mistake. The lack of cooling in the convention part isn’t Stéphane’s fault because it were rented “cooled” by the people on site when we visited the place two months before the event. But renting a place at that price which is not cooled while it was expected was harmful to us, furthermore the negative part was concentrated on the convention part of the event. We will contact the renter to settle the matter between us.

 

The number of visitors target was clearly not reached, it was big numbers, we will clean this up. The opening is here to develop the international part, my goal is essentially international, I found in this brand similarities with the Football’s FIFA. I was waiting to see because I don’t promote something I haven’t touched. The Electronic Sports World Cup, it works; the convention is another subject we’ll have to review next year, which must be next to de World Cup to create an osmosis. We need to take decisions on that matter, at the moment it’s still fresh, it’s only been 15 days since the event.

 

Players were very happy from the hotel and the closing party, the only fiasco was the convention, apart from the great scene and some very good looking booths.  If we had merged the two events we would have done more volume. Disney was very professional in the organization of their event in the hotel and the theme park. Unfortunately they totally blocked our communication to the audience inside the theme park, and it wasn’t expected at all from the beginning. If there was a few imperfections on the audience level, it’s partly because of the Disney’s blockage. We were too far from Paris in my opinion, if we need an event it must be like the 2009 Masters in Cheonan, South Korea. On the communication level, I had feedback from Fun Radio for instance; they talked about the event on air, but it was too late, we need to communicate way earlier.

 

Where do billing problems came from with Réseau Local ? What about the cash prize bank guaranty ?

I always pay my bills, sometimes it takes a few time, it’s always complicated for companies. It was DIP Communication which developed ESWC this year, there was a subcontract deal with DIP. Today all the doors are open to discussion, meetings and talks. As I declared to the NSP I gave myself three years, the sum of sponsors and the Groupe Coutant Finances allowed the funding of this re-launch.

 

About the guaranty, I want to precise that this will not be financed by a loan, but by capital brought by Groupe Coutant Finances and the sponsors. We will buy the dollars tomorrow and Gregorio Machadinho is gathering the bank datas at the moment in order to proceed to the transfers as soon as possible, they will be paid. I didn’t know at the beginning that Games Services didn’t pay 2008 cash prizes, as soon as I learned that I said we needed to guarantee them. We had to deliver this caution to reassure the players and this is why it exists. If I could find a way to pay them the day of the event it would have been faster but it was not always easier for the players. Of course there may be a player that doesn’t provides it’s IBAN on time but everything will be paid in the coming days. I especially await with pleasure do to the transfer of its 8000$ to Astank, which may be complicated because the player is a minor and the amount may have to be placed on a blocked account.

 

In December 2009, how did you heard about Stéphane Cosse and the project he was bearing ? Can you talk about why Stéphane sold you its stake in Games Solution ?

He was positioned when he bought the ESWC brand, and then I intervened. He contacted me by the third shareholder which was my mental trainer in France team, we met that way and I’m happy about it because it allowed me to discover this brand.

 

Stéphane Cosse had a development contract of the brand and the company, he is a subcontractor. For various events we had to buy his stake, but it’s personal and I can’t talk to you about it.

 

Still in December, we learned about the divorce between Lan Alliance and the ESWC, why didn’t you reach a deal ?

This was between Stéphane and Désiré Koussawo, it was signed but when we were moving to the operational part there was a conflict of interest at the sponsors level. It will be included in the groupings and talks, we met multiple times with Désiré at the World Cup.

 

You’re not afraid to invest in a sector which always lost money ?

There is a generation between the players and the event organizers, and another one between them and the finance people which may bring the necessary funds. If we want it to work we need to be closer, this reconciliation is on its way. I gave myself three years to prove to the finance people that now is the momentum to invest, but if you want to be taken seriously you need to show something.

 

Today I easily have a feedback from the banks because it’s my job, they wait to see someone succeed in this domain, they want to step on but they’re waiting. They’re completely open, but the point is who will present the project, a young man or someone with blank hair, and it still matters a lot today, unfortunately…

 

You’ve seen the NSP for two days after the world cup, will the International be one of the main leverage of the new generation ESWC ?

I think that Gregorio Machadinho who’s in charge of our international relation is someone that will be on my side. It’s the demand from our partners that he’ll be there because he is the link between the countries, it’s him who developed the brand, it was his job from the beginning. There is a lot of work to do with him.

 

One of the obvious conclusions is that we need to take time for 2011, we don’t have to hurry in the organization of the event. Stéphane wanted to do this fast because the brand was on decline, we needed to resurrect it and that the event was done. For the second event, we’ll have to take time to do what we have to do. It’s true that it was done in hurry, what we have today is the result of this hurry. We did what was needed to re-launch the event, now it’s done.

 

What is the partner that had to be announced during the closing ceremony of the ESWC, is it about Qatar ?

We’ll give an answer between August the 10th and August 25th for Qatar. There is an official application which is signed and a framework contract which is yet to be signed. There is the eventuality of an ESWC in Qatar in 2011, we’ll now it soon. Answers will be brought at that moment, if South Korea or Qatar failed we’ll still have the Paris solution, if possible at the center of the city.

 

I have contacts with someone who really have what is needed to develop a major event in Paris, maybe we should have started like this by the way. We’ve been reached by many countries, France is a good place to develop a project but the state doesn’t help us doing it and there is other countries more powerful which have huge capabilities and where the state puts them in action. They really have projects which can help develop electronic sports, the problem with esport, for instance in France, is the multiplicity of the event organizers (Lan Alliance, WCG, ESL,…) which makes it impossible, it’s a sector which is not federate.

 

You registered many trademarks of French or International Electronic Sports Federation, are you expecting to launch them at short term or a longer term ?

I registered them because it was obvious, the Electronic Sports World Cup name makes that everyone understands that it is the World Cup. The World Cyber Games are a big event, but it will never be the “World Cup”. It’s interesting for the understanding of the brand, it is the same for the federations, we had to do it. We’ll only be able to talk about that once some reconciliation will be done because at the moment our priority was the re-launch of the brand. Will it be federations or companies groups in a first time with operating licenses of their brand ? We’ll see afterwards. At the moment it’s just companies, to make a federation we need something that federates, and we need a strong brand for this.

 

It’s a sector in a constant growth, without the 2008 crisis, the ESWC could have benefit from the momentum on video games. The fact that this is a sector that loses money or win very few is due to a too large dispersion. If there was only one brand or one group in a country like France, all the sponsors will have to go to it, you have to centralize. The challenge for now is to say that esport exists. If you merge everything you have a real pole, if you don’t the sponsor doesn’t know where to go. Once this will be structured and we‘ll have signed some agreements we’ll be able to start

 

If the ESL, Lan Alliance or the WCG ask something to a video games editor for instance, it’s very hard. If it is official agencies from Qatar or South Korea that ask for something for esport it’s not the same, you need to start from the top, not the bottom. I wondered if we needed to do an online development, making physical events from time to time to validate the gamers level, in a way like ESL. We know there will be something else that the World Cup, there will be Masters events, we’re also thinking about the Online

 

If we want Qatar to invest we need to bring some serious to the brand, that’s what I’m doing, I strengthen, if it doesn’t work this time it will work the next one. It actually works, the numbers are something else. I brought my contribution on what I knew, finance for example, with the banking guarantee and my point of view, DIP Communication draw the analysis it wanted. I have ideas that I will put on the front next year.

 

What’s the capitalistic future for Games Solution, are you expecting more investors in your capital ?

Today we own the brand and the domain names, so we’ll be working on the opening of joint-ventures more than opening the brand capital. From the analysis with Stéphane of our meetings in South Korea and Qatar, I’ll take decisions.  I have some ideas, some trails, some reconciliations with other networks.

 

The priority number one was to achieve the event with the few time we had, a World Cup doesn’t do itself in three minutes. In the staff there was many very happy volunteers and I want to thank them and thank everyone which contributed to the organization. The convention was a discovery for me; the World Cup was sport, I knew how it was. I had the opportunity to care about our sponsors which were in the furnace and everything was done to make a good event even with the hotness. The disappointment of the cooling, the audience and the communication is harmful, but not one nor the other were privileged nor ignored. The goal was that everything was ok for everyone, but we didn’t controlled the audience.

 

If it has to be done again in Paris, the choice of the place will be primordial, chosen in relation with what happened this year, we have to bring the place to the audience and not the opposite. Finding solutions to make ESWC in a major convention for instance, it avoids the problem of the audience, you already hit a video games target, at last young people, and it will be won for the finales. Who wouldn’t have applaud  Astank and his 12 years ? Bankers came to see me during the event, they were surprised by Trackmania for instance which is very visual. It’s also things like that we need to develop, besides of course the very elitist side of Counter-Strike, to draw attention of the audience.

 

In the choice of games we need to find more visual games, still staying synchronized with the other countries. We will consult specialist, it’s not easy to find games played in many countries, in Asia they like Strategy, in Russia FPS, everything must be coordinated to find X countries. If we want a new game we need the community for it.

 

What NSPs liked is that I’m here for the long term, I’m someone you can trust, I always respect my commitments and I never do something half-way. In my business of real estate I sell the building on plans. On a 30 Million Euros project, we can’t miss, the delivery must be entirely compliant with what was sold on paper.

 

The operational part really started in December, Gregorio had started to move but didn’t know in which direction he had to go. Next year it will be a top level event, I will act in that way. If we need to do an ESWC in Qatar we’ll give ourselves 18 months and we’ll do something perfect in 18 months, I’m not afraid to do it in Paris again but in another way. We hesitated for a long time with Porte de Versailles, it’s going to be the center of gaming, it’s near the core of Paris and it is what missed in DisneyLand. The Korean still remember the Louvre event, so for foreigners we need a famous place.