Brief: E-sports is coming to the Asian Olympics, thanks to Alibaba

A massive esports event. Photo credit: Sam Churchill..

• Alisports, the sports affiliate of ecommerce giant Alibaba, announced that it’s partnering with the Olympic Council of Asia to bring e-sports to the 2018 and 2022 Asian Games, held in Jakarta and Hangzhou respectively.
• The Alibaba off-shoot is betting big on e-sports, or competitive computer gaming. It invested US$14.5 million to start the World Electronic Sports Games, an e-sports championship. It plans to put US$150 million in total into the genre.
• The global e-sports economy grew 41 percent year-on-year to hit a revenue of US$696 million, according to research firm Newzoo. China and South Korea account for 22 percent of the revenue pie. Asia-Pacific as a whole will contain 51 percent of e-sports enthusiasts in 2017, Newzoo projects.

Source: China Daily