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from the it-worked-for-judo-and-beach-volleyball dept.
Alibaba is venturing out of e-commerce and further into esports.
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?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @10:03PM
That's the biggest problem. Games do come and go from the Olympics over time as sports get popular or people lose interest, but the games that appear are mostly ones that are played for centuries. The Olympics themselves usually have the same games for decades.
In terms of esports, I have a hard time imagining how they could do it where there would be meaningful records and have people watching olympiad after olympiad.