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Tag: eSports

  • Stan announces strategic partnership with Nodwin Gaming & Star Sports

    Stan announces strategic partnership with Nodwin Gaming & Star Sports

    Mumbai: Bengaluru-headquartered esports fan engagement startup, Stan has announced entering into a strategic partnership with Nodwin Gaming and Star Sports, who are jointly presenting the Battlegrounds Mobile India Masters Series Tournament 2022. The tournament is set to become the first-ever nationally-televised esports tournament in the history of Indian esports. It will be held from 24 June – 17 July 2022.

    The objective of this partnership is to bring greater awareness to the masses for Stan which claims to be India’s first fan engagement platform that provides fans with the opportunity to meet their idols and bridge the gap between influencers and fans. As a part of the collaboration, Stan has been named as the ‘official collectibles partner’ at the upcoming BGMI masters series.

    The partnership between Nodwin, Star Sports and Stan aims to bring forth innovation and excitement across the intersectional areas of fan engagement and esports. Further, it will enable fans to get exclusive fan rewards such as meetups. In addition, Stan is also introducing a game in its app, through which its users shall be able to engage with the tournament, as well as hosting multiple giveaways on its social media handles, wherein exclusive event based rewards are to be given to the giveaway winners.

    Stan co-founder and COO Nauman Mulla said, “We at Stan are extremely proud and exuberant to be the collectibles partner of BGMI Masters Series, one of the biggest upcoming events in esports in our country. It was an obvious choice to partner up with them, as Stan strives to work with the best partners in this ecosystem; and hence we are taking this opportunity to bring awareness at a mass-scale through mainstream media showcase for Stan, a platform that provides fans’ community with the chance to meet and interact with their idols, and thereby bridging the gap between an esports athlete and a fan. We are confident that our partnership with Nodwin and Star Sports for the event would shine a light on Stan’s potential to grow as a leading fan engagement platform.”

    “Being the first esports fan-engagement platform in India, Stan is an ideal partner for the BGMI Masters Series as it will allow fans to directly engage with the tournament through this one-of-a-kind platform. We are delighted to have them on board as the ‘official collectibles partner’ for the series. With this tie-up, we have now covered one more access point to the tournament, post our association with Star Sports 2 for our television viewing audience, and with Loco and Glance Live for our digital audience,” said Nodwin Gaming co-founder and managing director Akshat Rathee.

    This year’s BGMI Masters Series will offer a prize pool of Rs 1.5 crore, and shall witness the participation of the top 24 BGMI teams in the country, as well as the top, most-celebrated BGMI esports players like Scout, Jonathan, Mortal, Owais and Ninja. On the other hand, Stan has built a one-stop platform for the constantly growing pool of esports fans in India and the world to optimally engage, play and grow closer to their idols in the gaming and esports space. Stan has already inked partnerships with several Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) athletes and creators in the country and claims to have crossed over 1,00,000 downloads in its beta mobile app within a month since its roll-out.

  • Power League Gaming names Langoor as new digital transformation agency partner

    Power League Gaming names Langoor as new digital transformation agency partner

    Mumbai: Langoor has been selected by Power League Gaming as its new digital, creative, and strategic agency partner. To help the most innovative gaming, content, and esports activation firm in the MENA region reach new gaming audiences, Langoor will be in charge of creating cutting-edge, immersive digital experiences.

    The highest rates of new technology use, mobile penetration, and population identification as gamers are seen in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.  While 67 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s population regularly plays video games, more than 65 per cent of residents of the UAE identify as gamers (four times per week or more).

    Power League Gaming (PLG), which has operations across the AIM region and has led the MENA region’s gaming and esports industry for the past ten years, has a direct impact on how gamers, publishers, and brands interact with one another. By actively teaching new talent and giving them job prospects in the MENA region through a variety of means, such as EMU (Esports and Media University), which is a component of PLG’s portfolio of education firms, their goal has been to enhance the Arabic gaming and esports market.

    Power League Gaming CEO Matthew Pickering said, “For the past decade, PLG and its teams have shaped the gaming and esports sector in the MENA region. We have consistently produced ground-breaking, disruptive mechanics that successfully connect global brands with gaming audiences. We are thrilled to welcome Langoor as our new digital transformation agency. Together, we look forward to building and designing engaging content platforms and developing the region’s next generation of gaming and content leaders.”

    Langoor co-founder and CEO Venugopal Ganganna said: “The Middle East is the fastest-growing market for gaming in the world. Not only does the region have an amazing gaming community but it also generates the highest gaming revenue per user. With the advent of Web3 and Meta, and the regions’ ability to adapt to these new emerging tech, we see players like PLG playing a supercritical role to innovate and grow the category. We are proud to partner with PLG on this exciting digital transformation journey and look forward to helping them reach gaming audiences across the MENA region and beyond.”

  • India’s entertainment & media industry to grow 8.8% CAGR by 2026: PwC Report

    India’s entertainment & media industry to grow 8.8% CAGR by 2026: PwC Report

    Mumbai: By 2026, the Indian entertainment & media sector is anticipated to grow by 8.8 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach Rs 4,30,401 crore. These figures are taken from PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media (E&M) Outlook 2022–2026, which is the 23rd annual analysis and forecast of E&M expenditures by consumers and advertisers across 52 territories.

    ”The Indian media and entertainment outlook for the next few years is quite unique. There is an exciting pace of growth of digital media and advertising led by the deeper penetration of internet and mobile devices in our market,” said PwC India partner & leader – entertainment & media Rajib Basu. “At the same time, traditional media will maintain their steady growth rate over the next few years. We shall see a very different profile of media and entertainment related businesses & revenue models emerging in the digital space once we have the rollout of 5G.”

    Key findings for India in this year’s Outlook include:

    OTT Video: The elimination of public entertainment and more time spent at home helped the total OTT revenue more than double in 2020. Revenue nearly doubled once more in 2021 as a result of this pattern. The market would still increase at a remarkable 14.1 per cent CAGR to reach Rs 21,032 crore in 2026, despite slower growth rates. Subscription services, which accounted for 90.5 per cent of revenue in 2021 and are projected to account for 95 per cent of revenue in 2026, are fueling this rapid growth.

    Video games & esports: India’s overall revenue from video games and esports is expected to rise by 18.3 per cent CAGR to Rs 37,535 crore by 2026 from Rs 16,200 crore in 2021. India is the third-fastest-growing market for video games in the world, behind Pakistan and Turkey, although still being a relatively small market given the size and population of the nation. Social/casual gaming accounted for Rs 13,244 crore, or 83.9 per cent, of India’s overall video game and esports revenue in 2021. Revenue from social/casual gaming is anticipated to grow at a 20.6 per cent CAGR and reach Rs 34,581 crore by 2026. The introduction of 5G technology to the market will be a key enabler of this segment.

    TV advertising: India’s TV advertising market had a -10.8 per cent fall over 2019 levels in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 recession, which struck after several years of rapid expansion. This turned out to be a brief setback. This sector increased by 16.9 per cent to Rs 32,374 crore in 2021 as the country’s economy  started to expand again. By 2026, the market would have grown by 6.3 per cent CAGR, reaching Rs 43,410 crore. After the US, Japan, China, and the UK, India will soon rank as the world’s fifth-largest TV advertising market.

    Cinema: India is projected to expand at the highest growth rate among all segments throughout the forecast period, with a startling 38.3 per cent CAGR, to reach Rs 16,198 crore by 2026. India is now the third-largest market globally in terms of admissions after China and the US. More than 379 million cinema tickets were sold in India in 2021, a respectable rise over the 278 million admissions in 2020 (and higher than the 226 million admissions in the US in 2020) but a significant decrease (-85.4 per cent) from the 1.9 billion tickets sold prior to the pre-pandemic.

    Internet advertising: The Indian Internet advertising market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 12.1 per cent to Rs 28,234 crore by 2026. The mobile sector dominates the country’s Internet advertising business, accounting for 60.1 per cent of total revenue in 2021 and rising to 69.3 per cent by 2026 due to India’s market for mobile-first internet access. The mobile sector is dominated by display advertising, which generated 90.7 per cent of total income in 2021 but will drop to 88.9 per cent of the total in 2026. India’s revenue from wired Internet access was Rs 6,379 crore in 2021, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.3 per cent to Rs 8,829 crore by 2026.

    Out-Of-Home Advertising: One of the strongest comebacks globally is being made by the out-of-home (OOH) advertising market in India, which is expected to rise at a 12.57 percent CAGR to reach Rs 5,562 crore in 2026. One of the sharpest market downturns and the largest revenue decline among the main economies of the world, total OOH revenue recovered by 63.4 per cent in 2021 over the levels of 2020. The total OOH revenue in 2021 reached Rs 3,076 crore. The momentum of this rebound will carry over into 2022, and by year-end the market will be at the value Rs 4,084 crore.

  • eSports startup FanClash raises $40 million to expand globally

    eSports startup FanClash raises $40 million to expand globally

    Mumbai: FanClash has raised $40 million Series B funding to fuel its mission to build a global esports fantasy, data and fan engagement platform. This succeeds a Series A round of $10 million from Sequoia Capital India, Falcon Edge (Alpha Wave Ventures) and Info Edge India in August 2021.

    There are five hundred million core esports viewers globally, growing at 20 percent CAGR. In India, this number stands at 100 million and is expected to grow threefold by 2025. FanClash provides a forum for the fans to not just enjoy the game as a viewer, but also empowers them to monetize their knowledge of esports.

    Users can create their fantasy teams from every tournament and earn rewards based on the real-life performance of the teams. This is like monetizing the knowledge of cricket or football via other fantasy platforms. While fantasy gaming has seen tremendous success in traditional sports such as cricket, electronic sports had no such channel available until FanCLash. The platform enables users to play fantasy on all leading global tournaments across top esports such as FreeFire, PUBG Mobile, COD Mobile, COD PC, Valorant, CS:GO, League of Legends, DOTA 2, etc.

    FanClash spokesperson said, “The company plans to use the funds raised for global expansion, building the team and user acquisition. FanClash released its product in India in 2021 and in the Philippines in June 2022 and aims to launch in Vietnam and the USA by early 2023.”
     
    Speaking of these milestones, FanClash co-founder Rishabh Bhansali said,“Esports fans around the world spend about 8-10 hours a week watching tournaments and gameplay, yet there are not enough avenues for players and viewers to monetize their knowledge in any way. Our customers love FanClash not only because it gives them the opportunity to compete in fantasy games, but also for making them financially independent and hence taken seriously as esports fans. The industry has corroborated this by the stellar adoption of FanClash in the last 12 months.”

    FanClash co-founder Richa Singh added, “We aspire to be a household name in the global gaming community. This is possible in esports, unlike traditional sports, because the underlying game titles have a global audience. At a broader level, our vision is to make the Indian startup ecosystem proud by creating ‘a global digital product from India, for the world’ and we believe we have the right ingredients to become world leaders.”

    Sharing his thoughts on this association, Sequoia MD Rajan Anandan said, “Online gaming has over 300 million users in India and esports has hit an inflection point with over 100 million Indian viewers. The online gaming market is also monetising well and is on track to surpass $5 billion in revenues by 2025. Going after this opportunity, FanClash is building an exciting new destination for esports fans with an incredible product that is loved by its users. We are inspired by their mission to revolutionise the esports industry, and Sequoia Capital India is excited to partner with the FanClash team.”  

    Alpha Wave Global MD Anirudh Singh added, “Esports have proven to be the next step in the evolution of the gaming industry. This is a global market which still has massive unsolved problems around fantasy as well as fan engagement. Using data as a moat, we were very impressed with the way FanClash has built out its gaming platform for global markets. The company has also shown its execution strength across all international markets, while maintaining high capital efficiency – reflected in the industry leading metrics like LTV/CAC. We are privileged to partner with the team and are looking forward to helping build out a global Esports platform.”

    “We are fortunate to be partners with the Fanclash team since their ideation days. The team is even more special for us since Richa is a returning founder whom we backed for a second time. The execution since Day 1 has been phenomenal with Fanclash becoming a category leader within two years of inception. They have been extremely capital efficient and are seeing strong user love which reflects in the superior engagement and retention of users on the platform. Esports is a large and growing market globally and Fanclash with its global ambitions is well positioned to become the global leader in esports fantasy,” said Info Edge Venture Fund partner Kitty Agarwal.

  • Star Sports forays into esports, teams up with Nodwin Gaming

    Star Sports forays into esports, teams up with Nodwin Gaming

    MUMBAI:  Star Sports and Nodwin Gaming, an esports company, have tied up to bring esports to the home of sports. In a move that will take esports to the masses at large, Star Sports will broadcast the Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) Masters Series tournament from 24 June-17 July, 2022, in Hindi, Tamil and English. The tournament will be aired Live on Star Sports 2 from the Nodwin Studios, specifically built for large-scale esports tournaments, in New Delhi. The participating teams will play for a prize pool of Rs. 1.5 crore.

    The addition of esports in global multi-sporting events like the Olympics, Asian Games, and Commonwealth Games is a strong testament to the growing stature of the sport worldwide, the parties said. As a part of this collaboration, Star Sports and NODWIN Gaming will capitalize on the traditional sports-viewing audience and have the opportunity to tap into the casual gamers pool living across the country, showcasing the potential of pursuing a career in esports.

    Disney Star head sports Sanjog Gupta said, “Esports in India is a fast-growing segment which has seen accelerated adoption over the last two years. It has immense headroom for growth in India when compared with its status in evolved markets around the world. It is also gaining prominence in the ecosystem as a competitive sport. Esports competitions have already developed a niche following on digital platforms. As the preferred destination for sports fandom, Star Sports is always looking for opportunities to engage fans, galvanise communities and recruit new audiences. Our partnership with Nodwin Gaming seeks to shape the future of eSports in India by introducing high quality competition and prominent players to millions of TV viewers around the country. It will hopefully fuel fandom for eSports amongst gamers and elevate aspiration amongst athletes.”

    The tournament will see India’s top 24 BGMI squads battling for glory. The teams, with fan bases reaching up to millions that have dominated the digital space, will take their game prowess, star performances and rivalries on linear distribution for the nation to enjoy.

    Nodwin Gaming MD, co-founder Akshat Rathee said, “We have been working tirelessly through the pandemic to build the foundation for such a big collaboration. This is a very big step for us in the right direction as we now take esports to the masses. So far, esports has always been associated with live streaming on digital platforms. Through this collaboration with a mainstream sports channel, we hope to break that mould. Satellite television does have its advantages like its unrivalled reach across every nook and corner of the country, uninterrupted and timely broadcast that is not dependent on internet connectivity and speed as well as affordability for the masses living in far-out areas. We look forward to spreading the reach of esports, making a connection with the youth across India and bringing esports into the arena of other traditional sports.”

  • First Partners wins communications mandate for Games24x7

    First Partners wins communications mandate for Games24x7

    Mumbai: First Partners has won the communications mandate for Games24x7. First Partners will be responsible for managing the brand reputation for Games24x7.

    Founded by New York University trained economists Bhavin Pandya and Trivikraman Thampy in 2006, Games24x7 is one of the fastest-growing online gaming companies in India with more than a hundred million users. Backed by marquee investors like Tiger Global, The Raine Group, and Malabar Investment, the company specializes in using behavioural science, technology, and artificial intelligence to provide a best-in-class playing experience across all its platforms.

    Speaking on the partnership, Games24x7 director communication Neha Singhvi said, “The online skill-gaming sector has witnessed an upward trend in the last few years and as the pioneers in the industry, we were looking for a communications partner who can provide a fresh and innovative approach for powerful storytelling.”

    “We look forward to collaborating with the dynamic communication team at First Partners and using their domain knowledge & expertise in developing strategic campaigns that stand out before relevant industry stakeholders,” she added.

    Atul Ahluwalia, Founding Partner, First Partners, said, “We are excited to partner with Games24x7 in shaping the emerging category of skill based digital games in India. This sunrise sector needs a holistic mix of expertise in reputation management, business outcome communication, and advocacy to get its due which our team at First Partners finds stimulating.”

  • Penta esports records more than 7.6 lakh viewership and 34 lakh watch minutes

    Penta esports records more than 7.6 lakh viewership and 34 lakh watch minutes

    Content and esports platform, Penta Esports’s initiative, the Penta Amateur League, has registered new growth numbers. It has recorded more than 7.6 lakh viewership and 34 lakh watch minutes. With an aim to go beyond metros, to tier 2 and 3 cities, the platform will enable the amateurs to carve a career as esports athletes.

    The Penta Amateur League’s broadcast more than 4,600 players and 800 teams participated in over 1,350 matches during the course of the league.

    The esport platform aims to lead and develop grassroot esports by providing opportunities to aspiring esports athletes. The Penta Amateur League’s Season one launched in October 2021 and concluded in March 2022 with a total of ₹30 lakh distributed in prize pool. It featured multiple eSports titles across mobile, PC and consoles each month which were World Cricket Championship three, Gran Turismo Sport, Valorant, Battlegrounds Mobile India, Free Fire, Pokemon Unite, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Tekken 7, Clash Royale and Brawl Stars.

    The league had seventy six match days and twenty days of broadcast, including the ‘Penta Talk Show’ preceding every month’s broadcast. The matches from the league were broadcast on multiple platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Loco and Booyah, culminating in more than 116 hours of total broadcast with a peak concurrent viewership of 6,853. Social media posts about the league across social media platforms of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter had a cumulative engagement of 24 per cent.

    Penta Esports founder and CEO Anurag Khurana commented, “We launched the first edition of the ‘Penta Amateur League’ with a vision to provide opportunities to budding esports athletes across titles and platforms. This will give further impetus to the growing esports ecosystem of India and contribute to sector growth.”

    Penta Esports co-founder and head of esports Kiran Noojibail said, “Our objective with Penta Amateur League was to incentivize esports enthusiasts to start and continue their grind to becoming an esports athlete irrespective of the game and platform. We are ecstatic with the response for Season 1 and plan to announce Season 2 of the league in the coming weeks.”

    The finals of each month were preceded by music performances by indie artists, like Gamini Khurana, Sushant Satija, Ashter X, Saahil Bhargava, Anindita Dey, Muktak Kanjilal and LiveIn Blues.

    The entire registration and scheduling of the league was carried on Penta Esports’ platform, Pentaesports.com. The platform is a one stop destination for all things esports, including match schedules, match results, VODs of tournaments and leagues, content, news, announcements and much more.

  • Esports enthusiasts will grow to 318 million in 2025: Newzoo Report

    Esports enthusiasts will grow to 318 million in 2025: Newzoo Report

    Mumbai: The number of esports enthusiasts will grow to 318 million in 2025, with a CAGR of plus 8.1 per cent during the period 2020-2025. In 2025, the total audience will surpass 640 million, according to Newzoo’s annual report titled ‘Global Esports & Live Streaming Market Report.’ The report presents key trends, market sizing and forecasts of esports across the globe, with a special focus on mobile esports, blockchain and co-streaming.

    Esports is growing enormously across the world! It is an industry that combines two of gaming’s most important aspects: playing and watching. Newzoo’s report aims to give a reliable and realistic overview of the current status and future of the live-streaming audience and esports market.

    The esport industry operates at the intersection of competitive gaming and game-related live streaming. According to the report, the companies involved in esports and the creators are driving engagement across esports and live streaming alike. However, the report analyses that esports organisations still rely on sponsorship as the primary source of revenue for their business. By the end of 2022, Newzoo expects sponsorship to account for $837.3 million—nearly 60 per cent of global esports revenues.

     It reveals that in 2022, the global esports audience will grow by 8.7 per cent year on year to reach 532 million. Esports enthusiasts—those who watch esports content more than once a month—will account for just over 261 million.

    The game’s live-streaming audience reached almost 810 million in 2021 and is expected to reach 1.41 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of plus 16.3 per cent from 2020 to 2025. At the same time, non-gaming content is one of the drivers of massive growth, accounting for up to 21 per cent of the content watched in 2021.

    More than 84 percent of users active in non-gaming categories are also active on gaming channels, which means that non-gaming content does not necessarily cannibalise gaming content on these platforms. This is an opportunity for brands that are more familiar with non-gaming content to engage with live-streaming gaming audiences.

    Digital and streaming are the two fastest-growing revenue streams for esports, with 2020-2025 CAGRs of 27.2 percent and 24.8 percent, respectively. Growing awareness around digital assets and NFTs will likely boost investment and fan interest in acquiring in-game items of esports IP.

    China leads the worldwide esport market

    Esports is set to generate nearly $1.38 billion in revenues by the end of 2022. China will generate nearly a third of worldwide esports revenues. Southeast Asia, Central Southern Asia, and Latin America are the fastest-growing regions, with 2020-2025 CAGRs above 27.6 percent, 23.4 percent, and 19 percent, respectively. Global esports revenues will exceed $1.86 billion by 2025, representing a healthy CAGR of above 13.4 percent.

    At the same time, PC esports titles dominate developed markets such as North America, Europe, China, South Korea, and Japan. Mobile esports titles dominate emerging markets like Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, Southeast Asia, and India   

    Twitch leads the esport live-streaming

    According to the report, Twitch was the most popular games live-streaming platform in the West in 2021, seeing a 26 percent year-on-year increase with nearly 20 billion live gaming hours watched. YouTube Gaming was the second largest, with 4.7 billion live gaming hours watched.  

    Brands are moving towards co-streaming

    The report also reveals that co-streaming is increasingly becoming part of brands’ strategy to provide non-gaming content to the gaming community. Recently, Netflix, the NBA, and Formula 1 have partnered with streamers to expand their distribution channels for content among gamers.

  • Blockchain companies investing in sports sponsorship projected to reach $5 bn by 2026: Report

    Blockchain companies investing in sports sponsorship projected to reach $5 bn by 2026: Report

    Mumbai: There were 2,254 publicly announced e-sports sponsorship deals globally in 2021 compared to 1,785 in 2020 making it one of the fastest growing segments of the global entertainment industry. The data was provided by Nielsen Sports’ 2022 global sports marketing report titled ‘Fans are changing the game.’ The female e-sports fan base grew by 19 per cent, while the male fan base grew by 12 per cent, it said.

    Interestingly, Blockchain companies investing in sports sponsorship is projected to reach $ five billion by 2026. This represents a projected 778 per cent increase in sports sponsorship from the crypto, blockchain and NFT brand category. 

    Nearly 40.7 per cent of global sports fans now stream live sports through digital platforms. This has led to the increase in over-the-top (OTT) media rights which includes a 19 per cent jump for the top European football leagues over the last two years at the local level, and a 31 per cent increase forecasted for the men’s tennis ATP Tour through 2023.

    Sports viewership has become a multi-screen experience with 47 per cent of people who watch sports simultaneously interacting with other live content (increase by five per cent over the last year). The demand for content overall remains high with non-event broadcasts, such as highlights, recap videos, and more, nearly as high as the event itself. Nielsen estimates that 39.4 per cent of global fans will watch non-live content related to a live sports event.

    Nielsen estimates there was a 146 per cent year-over-year rise in unbundled sponsorship investment in women’s sports (UEFA, FIFA, World Rugby) compared to a 27 per cent rise in 2020. With more women’s sports being televised, there are now increased sponsorship opportunities specific to women’s sport, which means that many brands are effectively reaching consumers that weren’t previously reached through sponsorships in men’s sport.

    Among other key findings of the 2022 Nielsen Sports Report, sports sponsorships were up 107 per cent in 2021, and through an analysis of 100 sponsorships in seven markets across 20 industries, Nielsen found that they drove an average 10 per cent lift in purchase intent among the fanbase.

    Overall, Nielsen’s 2021 Trust in Advertising Study showed that 81 per cent of global respondents either completely or somewhat trust brand sponsorships at sporting events. Athletes have shown a higher potential to establish connections with fans, with 26 per cent of avid sports fans who use social media for sports news saying that athletes are a great way to connect with brands and sponsors.

    The Nielsen report reveals the new behaviours that fans have adopted during the pandemic to connect with the sports and teams they follow, whether through increased social media activity, betting, co-watching, or more. By outlining how Nielsen predicts ‘Fandom’ in 2022 will impact sports sponsorship models, content distribution, the rise of crypto, esports and women’s sports, it will help contextualise the value of sports partnerships, helping brands and sports properties predict the future value of media assets and marketing investment ROI.

    “From our work as a data-driven company and by surveying thousands of fans, it is clear to see that sports fans demand new types of content driven by innovative delivery platforms.  In turn this impacts how rights holders and brands should approach audience engagement and sponsorship outcomes,” said Nielsen Sports MD international Marco Nazzari. “With sponsorship sophistication rising, measuring effectiveness at every step is now expected by brands. Predicting ROI and sales lift will be key for sports rights holders to remain relevant and secure marketing budgets from brands going forward.”

    “As traditional and digital worlds merge, the sponsorship life cycle is now broadening, creating additional and more well-rounded monetisation opportunities. It will become vital for brands to leverage new technology and utilise digital platforms to develop fan-engagement strategies that didn’t exist before in linear broadcasting. The fan is now the catalyst for huge change,” Nazzari further said.

    The full report can be accessed here

  • Inox and ESFI join hands to bring esports to the big screen

    Inox and ESFI join hands to bring esports to the big screen

    Mumbai: Inox Leisure and Esports Federation of India (ESFI) on Monday announced their partnership that will witness Inox providing a community viewing experience of esports tournaments on the big screen.

    As an exclusive cinema partner, Inox will host and promote ESFI tournaments across the country. “This will help in building awareness and popularising esports besides offering world-class cinemas as esports and video gaming venues in cities all over India,” said the statement.

    Inox has supported Indian sports through various collaborations, including its longstanding partnership with the Indian Olympic Association. Inox and ESFI together aim to take esports to the masses using Inox cinemas as venues for hosting esports tournaments, streaming of live tournaments, providing training opportunities, and offering a talent scouting platform for future global events.

    “We are thrilled to bring the action of esports to the cinemas of Inox in collaboration with Esports Federation of India who has been working relentlessly to grow Indian esports and together, make esports, a mainstream sporting activity in India,” said Inox Leisure’s chief executive officer Alok Tandon. “With this association, we will build more esports IPs and who knows with our initiatives we can unearth a Neeraj Chopra or Abhinav Bindra in esports for our country.”

    “The exclusive partnership comes at a very right time when Asian Games is scheduled in the month of September and ESFI will soon launch ‘AESF’s Road to Asian Games’ to select the national esports contingent of our country. This partnership will see both ESFI and Inox together nurturing and developing the Indian esports talent pool wherein ESFI will bring more partners to further strengthen this objective and create a robust and thriving esports ecosystem,” said ESFI president and Olympic Council of Asia – NOC and international relations director Vinod Tiwari.

    As per the E&Y report, India currently has more than 1,50,000 professional esports players that have generated a viewership of 17 million people across 14 broadcast platforms, and the forecast is to have 1.5 million professional players with 85 million viewership from 20+ broadcasters by FY2025.

    The association will enable Inox to engage and offer an enticing content proposition to the age bracket of 15-24 years by promoting this new age sport that has the potential to garner a huge fan base and is expected to reach Rs 11 billion by FY2025 as per industry data.

    Through this partnership, Inox and ESFI will be jointly hosting city tournaments and building various esports IPs in order to intensify its growth, not just at the elite, but also at the grassroots level. The objective will be to introduce the charm of gamers and gaming enthusiasts, across the country, to take part in online as well as in-cinema tournaments, said the statement.