Esports played by more than half of the world, need to recognise it as a sport: Int'l Esports Fed

Esports has turned into a billion-dollar industry with close to 550 million loyal esports fans and the numbers continue to grow with each passing day. The industry has long argued that esports has to be recognised as a legitimate sport and that there is a need to build a solid grassroots structure in the country. At a recent conference titled ‘Rise of Esports – The Emerging Frontier’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the International Esports Federation (IESF), a union of 130 plus national federations, referred to esports as one of the most “dynamic sports.”

“Esports needs skill, practice, dedication and support and it is important to recognise esports as a sport because it is a game of the future which is being played by more than half of the world. The international gaming business last year was $170 billion, it is by far the biggest industry on earth, bigger than movies, music and all traditional sports even combined,” Vlad Marinescu, President of IESF, said in his address.

Esports Federation of India (ESFI), who are also members of the IESF, also spoke about efforts being made to recognise esports as sports in India. 

“Recently, we also had the opportunity to meet the minister MEITY (Ministry of Electronics and Information technology) along with the online gaming industry and ESFI was able to put forward a prospect of esports as a sport and how it should be regulated as a sport,” said Vinod Tiwari, President, ESFI and Director, International & NOC relations, Olympic Council of Asia   

Tiwari added that with so much support, sooner or later India is destined to become an esports powerhouse driven by cheap data and smartphone penetration.

Highlighting the global perspective, Darren Kwan, President of the Australian Esports, talked about how grassroots development has helped Australia to become a hotbed for esports economy and how India could replicate the same. 

“For developing the grassroots ecosystem, we focused on player communities, high school clubs and from there we were able to build monstrous communities. We have educated high school kids about the difference between playing for leisure and participating for competitive esports tournaments, we have made sure that they need to be focussed with their studies and other demands and spend quality time for playing esports and this approach has really worked for us,” Kwan said.

He added that bout 70 per cent of the professional gamers are university students. “Today, esports and gaming is massively popular in Australia and has been the absolute driver as Australians spend over 3 billion dollars a year in video games alone,” Kwan said.
 

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