Bharti Airtel and leading e-sports company Nodwin Gaming on Thursday announced a partnership to further grow e-sports in India.
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 will be used as a base to create a points table for all participants.
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. Airtel India Esports Tour will initially cover all Nodwin tournaments across gaming titles of PUBG Mobile, CS:GO, Clash of Clans and FIFA.
Given India's large youth population and rapidly growing internet penetration, said the compes, e-sports has the potential to become a large part of the country's mainstream sporting culture. By 2021, online gaming is estimated to become a one billion dollar plus market in India with over 620 million gamers.
"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," said Bharti Airtel's Chief Product Officer Adarsh Nair.
"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," he said in a statement.
Nodwin Gaming is an independent subsidiary of mobile gaming company Nazara Technologies. Formed in 2014, the India-based company has since produced over 10,000 hours of gaming content, has been watched by over 100 million viewers and orgsed 100 plus gaming and esports events.
( With inputs from ANI )