One Championship is investing $50m into esports expansion

An esports tournament / Image credit: Dota 2 The International

It’s a left hook no one saw coming. One Championship, Asia’s largest martial arts sports media firm, is making a big move into esports, or competitive video gaming. The company will invest US$50 million to hold esports tournaments throughout the region, starting from 2019. These competitions, which will be broadcasted live, will piggyback off One Championship’s scheduled martial arts events.

For this effort, the company is partnering game-devices maker Razer, which has been involved in esports for many years. Razer will co-organize these events, and its payments service Razer Pay will be the official method of buying tickets to these competitions.

As part of the initiative – called One eSports – One Championship will produce all sorts of esports-related content in addition to the live broadcasts. These include documentaries, reality shows, and weekly magazine shows.

The events will feature “multiple blockbuster games,” though the company hasn’t announced what these titles are. The usual suspects though would be League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Dota 2, and Overwatch.

Dentsu, a major advertising agency in Japan, is a joint venture partner in One eSports. The agency has been the marketing partner of the Japan eSports Union, the leading esports organization in the country. It will lend its marketing expertise to One eSports, and will help bring over Japanese esports players to the rest of Asia.

Esports rising

While martial arts have thousands of years of history in Asia, esports is a baby in comparison. It’s growing rapidly, though. Gaming industry research firm Newzoo estimates that global esports revenue will reach US$906 million in 2018, a year-on-year growth of 38 percent. More than a third of that will go to North America, and close to 20 percent will belong to China.

South Korea is also a significant esports player, while Newzoo calls Southeast Asia the fastest-growing esports market in the world. Although Asia is still catching up in terms of esports revenue, it already accounts for just over half of the global esports audience.

Based on the current trajectory, Newzoo predicts that worldwide esports revenue will reach US$1.4 billion by 2020. By comparison, the NBA and its teams alone make US$7.38 billion in revenue, though to be fair the league started decades ago.

Mobile gaming could be an interesting new front in the esports landscape particularly in Asia, where smartphones are far more ubiquitous than desktops.

Hit mobile games like Fortnite and PUBG could open up new audiences and be the breeding ground of new athletes, making esports more accessible to the masses.

With esports being so nascent, it’s often viewed with disdain because it doesn’t involve rigorous physical activity. However, that perception is changing. Esports became a demonstration sport at the 2018 Asian Games, and will become a medal event at the 2022 edition.

Commercial enterprises are also noticing its potential. Amazon bought gaming streaming site Twitch for close to a billion US dollars in 2016. Alibaba has a global esports director. Singtel, Singapore’s leading telecoms carrier, has come in to support the genre, and is also a partner of One eSports. Meanwhile, popular streaming site Bigo has launched an offshoot dedicated to mobile games.

One Championship’s evolution

Starting from 2018, One Championship has been diversifying beyond its initial focus on mixed martial arts. Before the esports announcement, it had expanded its roster to include kickboxing and muay thai.