The esports player pool in India is increasing, and so is the participation in tournaments. What could drive this further is the International Esports Federation (IESF) turning to India and bringing global esports intellectual properties (IPs) to the country.
An EY-FICCI 2024 report points out that participation in esports tournaments in India touched 1.8 million last year, which is expected to reach 2.5 million in 2024. Professional esports teams
are estimated to grow in 2024 to 35 from 22 last year. To tap into this growth, Skillhub Online Games Federation (SOGF), along with IESF, is first bringing a global esports IP called Esports Masters Championships next year.
SOGF is a not-for-profit organization for promoting and developing esports in India.
"The first thing that came to my mind when we discussed about the partnership with SOGF is finally India. I travel all over the world for esports and everywhere I've always been asked why is India not there? Why is India not in this pool of big players," said Boban Totovski, General Secretary, IESF, told Moneycontrol.
He added that India is one of the largest countries in the world for esports and needs a space in the global scheme of things. "They (India) need and deserve a place, and they should have a place. Now is the right time to slowly start to penetrate the market and, create infrastructure and policies around esports."
He also said that Asia holds the lead as a continent in esports. "Asia is still the strongest one. in esports with the Middle East growing as an investment hub."
The largest number of e-gamers are from India, noted Shankar Agarwal, President of SOGF, who added that despite a large pool of esports players in the country there is not enough economic value coming from the players as the gamers are not involved in competitive gaming.
"To have participants from every nook and corner of the country, we are looking at competitions starting from district level. From district level, it can go to the divisional level, and then state level, and then regional level. From regional level, it can be at national level competitions. But since this is the first attempt, we are not very sure at this point of time, how will it pan out," Agarwal said.
He added that established esports federations in many states is a big advantage. "SOG Federation has already established a large number of Federations in every state. So, the idea is taking advantage of the existence of these federations in the state.
All the state governments are very excited to host such events, Agarwal said. "Such competitions give states an opportunity to showcase their own state. It gets them investment opportunities through these competitions and it generates economic activity within the state. States like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh seem they are very excited to host these kinds of (esports) events," he said.
Agarwal expects significant portion of sponsorship revenue coming from state governments and rest from brands.
Totovski also noted that partnership with IESF will also introduce India's esports world to 150 countries that are part of the federation.
He added, "IESF is working closely with publishers and we have good relations with them."
"Next year, we will have one international tournament where all the best titles will be there like BGMI, Valorant, among others. We can have 20-30 teams from all over the world coming and competing along with the local players," said IESF's General Secretary Totovski.
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