MUMBAI: While the complex eSports industry may be daunting for investors, it is growing exponentially and has already built a large, global audience. India is also seeing major traction, with multiple companies entering the fray in a country where internet and mobile adoption is fast accelerating.
Among those who are bullish on the future of eSports in this market is Ronnie Screwvala, the first generation media & entertainment entrepreneur, one of whose hats is as the co-founder of sports investment company U Sports.
U Sports’ eSports intellectual property creator, U Cypher is raising the bar high since its launch in early 2017 when it also announced a first-of-its-kind championship in India with the same name across digital platforms and games.
In a conversation with SportzPower, U Sports co-founder and CEO Supratik Sen said that the response towards the first season was beyond expectation following the company’s initial investment of Rs 150 million and awarding the TV and digital broadcast rights to Viacom18 youth channel MTV and video-on-demand platform Voot respectively.
With MTV having produced 37 episodes of original programming content of one hour each throughout the season, Sen claims that U Sports was able to gain a reach of 450 million across platforms and 150 million views in total. Never before has an eSports competition gained so much traction as U Cypher bagged partnerships with YouTube and Twitch, Amazon’s OTT platform as well,Sen asserts.
U Sports’ tie-ups with various licensors ensured that Counter Strike GO and DOTA 2 on PC, Tekken 7 on PlayStation 4 and Real Cricket 2017 on mobile were the games on offer.
Six teams with 12 members each were selected as per a player draft across the games from top eSports tournaments and teams from pan or across India. An equitable points system was incorporated in the drafting process which ensured that no previous teammates would link up again, making the event competitive and unpredictable.
Sen credits the participation as well as fan engagement to the Indian mobile games market which is made up by 300 million people while 10-15 million are enthusiastic about PC and console games. Cricket continues to be a hot favourite even in digital gaming as it has registered 20 million downloads, a 200% jump from last year.
Come the second season of U Cypher and the prize money for the competition is set for a hike from the Rs 5.1 million awarded for the first tournament. Sen added that the company is planning to inject a further Rs 10 million into U Cypher over the next one year and aims to attract 8-10 teams for participation in each game.
U Sports’ efforts have run parallel with India featuring in the first-ever Asian Games eSports competition in 2018 with some U Cypher participants such as Ankur Diwakar of the Season 1 winning team Yakshas.
If all goes smoothly, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will only enhance the sport’s profile, Sen avers. With a recent report claiming that the industry will hit $1.1 billion in revenues this year itself, U Sports is looking to cash in with the second season and develop the property with a rise in media rights and sponsorship valuations.
Related Reports
Global esports economy to breach $1bn barrier in 2019: Study
Investments in place, USports lays ground for I-League entry bid
