Enhanced Games to offer performance enhancers and Nasdaq shares to fund pro-doping competition

The Enhanced Games is going public in two ways — with a new listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange and also by offering a direct-to-consumer business focused on performance products in a move it says “aims to democratise access to performance enhancement tools and protocols”.

The announcement comes six months ahead of the swimming, track and weightlifting competition the company will hold in Las Vegas.

American Olympic sprinter Fred Kerley and English swimmer Ben Proud are among the handful of athletes who have signed up to compete for $383,000 in prizes.

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The Enhanced Games pose a direct challenge to the global anti-doping system by explicitly allowing athletes to use performance-enhancing substances.

Participating athletes will not be drug tested in the way Olympic athletes are, but will be “mandated” to undergo extensive medical profiling, including cardiac imaging and genomic sequencing, to ensure their health before the competition, according to the company's news release.

This stance has drawn massive international condemnation, with critics, including the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), claiming it endangers athletes and undermines the integrity of sport.

The new public offering is expected to raise over $306 million for Enhanced Games.

The company said it closed a $61 million pre-listing equity deal before its announcement, with that stake convertible into public shares once the company starts trading.

These are projected figures, with the capital not only to fund the Las Vegas event but to launch the direct-to-consumer business.

The key part of the financial model — that was not discussed publicly when Enhanced Games launched in 2023 — is to offer what it calls consumer health products.

The Enhanced Games news release says it intends to launch its product in early 2026.

Currently, the Enhanced Games website includes a link to "reserve access" to testosterone replacement medications.

The company will promote its philosophy by marketing prescription hormone therapies and performance medicine directly to consumers, using its elite athletes and their record-breaking feats as a high-profile marketing vehicle.

“By merging scientific progress with elite athletic performance, we can not only build an exciting new sports property that changes athletes’ lives, but also showcase that performance enhancements — under the right clinical and medical supervision — can deliver long-term health and longevity benefits," chief executive Maximilian Martin said.

Martin's appointment as CEO was announced last week as part of a broad corporate restructure that will see founder and frontman Aron D’Souza move away from day-to-day operations but remain as a shareholder.

Sid Banthiya, formerly the chief finance officer at the bakery Milk Bar, took the same position with Enhanced Games.

Rick Adams, the former chief of sport performance at the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, is now an executive at Enhanced Games as its chief sporting officer.