Sidemen management expands beyond the collective

Arcade, the management company behind The Sidemen, is expanding its focus beyond the YouTube collective as it relaunches as an entertainment business.

The company has signed a slate of creators including comedian Max Fosh, creator collective Friends From Work (comprising Arthur Frederick, Arthur Hill, George Clarkey and ItalianBach), John Nellis, Faith Kelly, Generation Football and Fallow Chefs.

The Sidemen, which recently saw the departure of one of its founding members KSI, will also continue to be managed by Arcade. 

Matt Elek, who became the company’s chief executive in July following a restructuring that saw him take over from co-founder Jordan Schwarzenberger, said Arcade is pursuing a broader strategy to become a leading player in Europe’s creator economy.

“Arcade is executing an ambitious growth strategy to become the dominant player in the creator economy in Europe, which is demonstrated by our incredible new line-up of creator media partners,” Elek said in a statement to Deadline.

“We’ve built the entertainment company that creators actually need, and the wider market is only now starting to catch up.” 

The expansion comes a year after Arcade secured a seven-figure investment and a minority stake from Lumina Media, the talent and media investment company founded by Thomas Benski, to accelerate its growth across the EMEA region. 

Benski, founder and chief executive of Lumina, said: "We invested in Arcade because we believe they have the team, talent and ambition to build one of the defining companies in the creator economy.

"They've already built something special. Our role is to give Jordan, Matt and the team the backing, network leverage, growth company experience and resources to take that ambition to the next level, and we're incredibly excited about what they can build from here."

Founded in 2021 by Schwarzenberger, Sam Uwins and Aaron O’Neill, Arcade was originally built to help The Sidemen turn their creator careers into a broader business. Since then, it has grown the collective into a 65-plus-person company spanning six businesses, and is now expanding its management model to other creators. 

As part of the expansion, Arcade is also hosting what it describes as Europe’s first Upfront, mirroring a playbook used by cable television to pitch upcoming programming and advertising opportunities to brands. 

The invite-only event, which will be held in London on September 17, will bring together over 150 advertisers, brands and partners businesses. Attendees will receive exclusive previews of upcoming content slates, alongside audience data and insights.