The Government of India has integrated Esports with mainline sports disciplines in the country.
The President of India, Droupadi Murmu, amended the rules governing Esports and asked the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Sports Ministry to include e-Sports as part of multi-sports events.
The International Olympic Association (IOC) is also going big on popularising e-Sport with Singapore being confirmed to host the inaugural Olympic Esports Week next year. The IOC had said that the Olympic Esports Week would showcase the best of virtual sports - hybrid physical and simulated sports - in the four-day festival, including exhibiting the latest technologies, panel discussions, education sessions and show matches.
There had been a growing demand for Esports to be included in the curriculum of multi-discipline events after it was included in the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games as a demonstration sport, meaning medals won in the sport were not counted in the official overall medals tally.
Lokesh Suji, Director, Esports Federation of India and Vice-President of Asian Esports Federation, said, “We have been constantly working on establishing the difference between esports and iGaming, and finally, our efforts have been fulfilled. We welcome this announcement by our government, which will open new avenues to pour in more investment opportunities in this booming industry. From now onwards, we will have to build proper infrastructure, training facilities and coaching for our young esports athletes. Only a short time until we see esports being placed in the same league as cricket, football, basketball, etc. and having similar fan power, scale and craze.”
