Pokimane announces move into talent management with RTS Agency

Oct 27, 2021

Streamer Imane "Pokimane" Anys today announced a new venture as Chief Creative Officer and founder of a new talent management agency known as RTS. The company will focus on talent and brand consultancy in the gaming and esports space and boasts a number of other big names from the gaming space among their ranks.

Alongside Pokimane will be the likes of former Twitch COO Kevin Lee, host and presenter Sue "Smix" Lee, ELEAGUE’s ex-commissioner Min-Sik Ko, and Kim Phan, Blizzard’s former Director of Esports Operations. The move was described as ‘the biggest announcement of Pokimane’s career’ by the streamer yesterday, as she teased it on Twitter.

The plans for RTS have been in the works since 2020, according to CEO Stuart Saw. “Imane and I began talking last year on how we can build RTS to reimagine the creator economy and esports in a way that focuses on the sustainability of our industry,” Saw is quoted as saying in the brand announcement. “She has such a keen eye on the business which will be a huge asset to creators and brands who truly want to make a long-term difference.”

According to her statement in the RTS press release, Pokimane’s main motivation is to pass on the benefits of her years in the streaming game to new talent that may be struggling to monetise the success they manage to achieve. “I keep seeing amazing creators that are doing wonders with their content and streams, but they don’t have the support to grow their brand and business operations. They’re spinning their wheels on basic stuff and taking a lot of frustrating partnership deals that don’t work out for either party involved.”

She went on, “I’ve gone through the wringer with these experiences, and we’re building RTS to be able to provide the support, alleviate the workload, and solve this for creators, developers, and brands. My goal is to take my years of experience and make it accessible to newer creators so they don’t need to go through the process I have endured.”

According to their site, RTS will work with Epic Games and their Fortnite World Cup, as well as beleaguered social media platform Facebook. The site also claims RTS are co-owners of the Evolution Championship Series, a fighting game event owned by Sony that has historically been one of the leaders in the fighting game scene.