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posted by on Wednesday April 19 2017, @09:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the it-worked-for-judo-and-beach-volleyball dept.

Alibaba is venturing out of e-commerce and further into esports.

The company's sports subsidiary, Alisports, has joined with the Olympic Council of Asia to bring esports to the Asian Games.

Esports will appear at next year's Games in Indonesia as a "demonstration," Alibaba said, but will be an official medal sport in China's 2022 Games. The Asian Games are recognised by the International Olympic Committee, meaning in 2022 esports will be an official Olympic sport.

Esports is a growing market that is expected to garner 191 million global enthusiasts by the year's end, according to research firm Newzoo. As of last April, the industry was worth over $450 million -- a number expected to grow to $1 billion by 2019.

That growth is manifesting in many ways. Not only is esports now technically an Olympic sport, the NBA will soon be creating its own esports league, and there are gaming schools to groom the next generation of pros.

Can't decide--is this exciting, or sad?


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  • (Score: 2) by stormreaver on Wednesday April 19 2017, @01:00PM (3 children)

    by stormreaver (5101) on Wednesday April 19 2017, @01:00PM (#496268)

    ...if you have the same understanding of "sport" that I do, i.e., a head-to-head athletic competition.

    I would remove, "head-to-head" in that definition, as I consider gymnastics, diving, and even weight lifting (though just by the thinnest of margins), to be sports. Any athletic competition that takes place in the real world can be considered a sport.

    But video games?! That is just stupid beyond all measure. While video games can certainly be competitive, there is a distinct lack of anything even remotely athletic about it.

    I agree that the Olympics has been a sad joke for a long time now, but this is just a new low. I suppose the next "sport" to be added to the Olympics will be, "competitive thinking really hard."

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @01:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @01:33PM (#496284)

    I suppose the next "sport" to be added to the Olympics will be, "competitive thinking really hard."

    Chess is already recognised as an Olympic sport.

  • (Score: 2) by tonyPick on Wednesday April 19 2017, @02:11PM

    by tonyPick (1237) on Wednesday April 19 2017, @02:11PM (#496305) Homepage Journal

    there is a distinct lack of anything even remotely athletic about it.

    In terms of physical dexterity, hand/eye co-ordination and reflex times it seems to me to be on a par with target shooting and archery, both of which are regular Olympic sports, and well ahead of Chess and Bridge which are both recognised Olympic sports and, to quote your phrase "competitive thinking really hard.".

  • (Score: 1) by Roger Murdock on Thursday April 20 2017, @04:42AM

    by Roger Murdock (4897) on Thursday April 20 2017, @04:42AM (#496690)

    I'm not sure I'd consider diving to be more of a sport than weight lifting. Weight lifting has objective measures of performance - the weight being lifted. Diving is some judges opinion of whether the diver did good stuff. I'd also remove the head-to-head requirement as well otherwise we're excluding sports like rally driving, downhill mountain bike, even golf as you're rarely going head-to-head with the person who ends up winning.