Bharti Airtel, India’s largest integrated telecommunications company, and Nodwin Gaming, South Asia’s leading Esports company, announced a partnership to further grow Esports in India.
Given India’s large youth population and rapidly growing internet penetration, Esports has the potential to become a large part of the country’s mainstream sporting culture. It is estimated that by 2021, online gaming will become a USD one billion plus market in India with over 620 million gamers.
The company said that the partnership has been kicked off with the launch of Airtel India Esports Tour, which is the first and largest property of its kind in this segment. It will also have a national ranking and awarding system for Indian Esports players based on their year-long performance across top tournaments that will be used as a base to create a points table for all participants.
Airtel India Esports Tour will initially cover all Nodwin tournaments across gaming titles of PUBG Mobile, CS:GO, Clash of Clans, FIFA, etc. The coverage will extend to all iconic Nodwin tournaments such as the India Premiership by Nodwin, Dreamhack India, The Northeast Cup, KO Fight Nights and PAN Fest. This will also cover Nodwin operated tournaments such as the PUBG Mobile Pro league in India.
The broadcast of the Airtel India Esports Tour will be available on Airtel’s digital platforms and help with taking this emerging format to newer audiences.
Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Bharti Airtel said, “At Airtel, it has always been our aspiration to support a digital India. Gaming is the next frontier of entertainment and it gives us great pleasure to announce our partnership with NODWIN to unlock the potential of E-sports in India. E-sports is taking a higher share of where our youth spend their time and we look forward to a deep partnership with NODWIN to evolve this space and support the youth in India.”
“NODWIN Gaming believes that by binding the elements of independent tournaments into a single storyline we will give rise to a new culture in the competitive world of Indian esports. The teams and players will now look up to perform throughout the year rather than focusing on few big standalone tournaments in a year,” said Akshat Rathee, Founder and MD, Nodwin Gaming.
Initially, the Airtel India Esports Tour will be seeded by Nodwin by its extensive tournament network but will aspire to be a platform, where all tournaments will carry weightage independent of the organizer.
HrNxt.com Newsdesk has researchers and writers with an excellent domain knowledge about the talent ecosystem, and the business environment. The team keeps a tab on the latest happenings in the ecosystem to bring most relevant news and insights for our readers. You can connect with our newsdesk at newsdesk@hrnxt.com.