Top business award for Teesside gaming firm

A flourishing video games company headed by a Teesside University graduate has won a leading business award.

Double Eleven has picked up Teesside Company of the Year in the regional heats of the nebusiness awards and will now progress to the final next month.

Double Eleven, which was founded by software engineers Lee Hutchinson and Matt Shepcar in early 2010 and has grown to more than 40 employees, was among 80 finalists at the black tie ceremony held at Teesside University.

The company, now based at Middlesbrough’s BoHo One with another office in Leeds, specialises in video game development exclusively for the PlayStation network and has created several games including Frozen Synapse: Tactics and LittleBigPlanet which won TIGA Game of the Year in 2012.

Double Eleven has several Teesside University graduates on its staff, including Chief Executive Officer Lee Hutchinson.

The company is a keen supporter of Digital City Innovation at Teesside University which works to generate new businesses and jobs in the digital and creative industries.

Double Eleven’s Chief of Operations Mark South ran one of the very first companies to come out of the DigitalCity Fellowship scheme – Onisoft.

He now sits on one of the boards of DigitalCity Innovation (DCI). He said: ‘We feel very humbled to have received this award, having been in competition with leading businesses from more traditional industries. We are proud to be putting the digital sector of Middlesbrough on the map.'

‘Teesside's strength has always been in engineering and now we're making it stronger in software engineering, paving the way for a brighter future for the Tees Valley.

‘Our close and continued work with the University allows us to use local talent to do this.’

Double Eleven will now progress to the nebusiness awards final on April 25 where they will be pitted against the winners from Durham and Wearside and Tyneside and Northumberland.

The awards are organised by The Journal and Evening Gazette in association with the North East Chamber of Commerce.

The Company of the Year award recognises firms which are characterised by ‘excellence in their product or service’ and ‘the achievement of a strong or growing market share in their chosen niche’.

Evening Gazette editor Chris Styles said: ‘The economic outlook remains challenging, which only makes these awards more important than ever.

‘What makes these awards – which are the biggest of their kind anywhere in the UK – so successful, is the strength of the entries. ‘This year is no exception and our finalists include businesses of all shapes and sizes from a wide variety of sectors.’

Double Eleven is the lead sponsor of Teesside University’s ExpoTees an annual showcase and awards ceremony for final year students from the School of Computing.

ExpoTees takes place on Wednesday 15 May at Teesside University’s Darlington Campus - with an exhibition from 1.00pm to 5.00pm and the awards from 6.00pm to 7.00pm.

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