Singtel Group goes all in on regional eSports development

esports
Image credit: Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock.com

Singtel, its wholly-owned subsidiary Optus, and regional partners Airtel, AIS, Globe and Telkomsel, have signed an MoU to cooperate on growing the gaming and eSports ecosystem in Southeast Asia, Australia and India.

The MoU brings together the six members of the Singtel Group to partner across the gaming space, including scaling up eSports, content creation and distribution, and collaboration with the broader gaming ecosystem.

The Singtel Group will tap on its telco assets, knowledge of its local markets in Asia and mobile customer base of more than 700 million – over 200 million of which play games on a regular basis – to explore eSports opportunities. Singtel, Optus, Airtel, AIS, Globe and Telkomsel intend to work together to develop solutions and services for gamers and fans in the region. This includes access to high quality local, regional, and global eSports competitions, as well as original content and exclusive programming.

“Gaming is part of a digital world without borders, where fast network speeds, connectivity and local market knowledge are critical. It is a natural and perfect fit for Singtel and our partners,” said Arthur Lang, CEO of Singtel’s International Group. “We hope to play a major regional role as an enabler of eSports, to collectively grow the gaming ecosystem.”

Singtel says the number of gamers in the region covered by the MoU is projected to surge from 400 million in 2017 to more than 700 million by 2021, with eSports viewership numbers expected to double and reach over 40 million by 2019.

The MoU was announced at Singtel’s inaugural multi-title and regional esports league, PVP Esports Championship, which took place last week. On Day 1 of the event, Singtel launched a fixed broadband bundle aimed specifically at gamers featuring 1 Gbps worth of dedicated gaming bandwidth, a new Razer Sila gaming router and subscription to the WTFast Gamer Private Network service.

Be the first to comment

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.