“This has received strong support from the community and spurred us to deepen our engagement beyond e-sports into gaming content distribution. We’ve built a team of technology and gaming veterans to lead the charge as we take our next big step,” Mr Lang said.
Singtel organised its inaugural PVP Esports Championship in 2019, attracting over 3,600 teams competing in both Dota 2 and Arena of Valor for a US$300,000 prize pool, the telco said in a statement earlier. It added that the championship final was played before a sold-out live audience and streamed to over 13 million viewers online through Singtel’s content partners.
Charles Huh, vice-president and head of private placement group at SK Telecom, said the company hopes to create a new level of gaming experience by providing popular Korean gaming content throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Alistair David Johnson, managing director of new business at AIS, said the games market in Thailand is showing remarkable growth with over 27 million active gamers across all platforms. He said revenue in 2019 exceeded 23 billion baht and is expected to increase to 27 billion baht this year.
Singtel said the joint venture is not expected to have a material impact on Singtel Group’s financials.