In recent times, competitive sim racing has inexorably moved towards professionalism. Today we have sim racing teams with budgets large enough to pay salaries to drivers and engineers; we have the increasing presence of blue-chip sponsors; and we have several sim racing platforms with huge and passionate player pools.
Championships like the Le Mans Virtual Series and ESL R1 – and their respective prize pools of $250,000 and €500,000 – prove the extent to which top-level sim racing esports has transitioned from being a domain for enthusiastic amateurs to an exclusive platform for full-time professionals, all in double-quick time.
With such an acceleration – enhanced by Covid lockdowns and the shutdown of global motorsport – much of the industry’s infrastructure hasn’t kept pace. And it’s here where new start-up business PACENOTE has placed itself, aiming to help both drivers and businesses entering the professional sim racing space.
“If you’re a talent and you want advice. If you’re player and you want help with your contract, let’s say. Or if you’re a business and you want to gain some strategy advice [or] understand sim racing… where would you go?” asks Tobin Leigh, PACENOTE’s founder and Director, highlighting the dearth of professional sim racing agencies in the industry.
“I don’t think there’s any obvious place where you can go for help, and that is why I’m launching PACENOTE. [It’s] designed to be a one-stop shop for anyone that needs help in sim racing,” he continued.
PACENOTE is looking to provide operational and organisational support to its clients, offering sponsorship and marketing strategy advice as well as event planning and management services.
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