Singtel Ramps Up Its eSports Game

The Southeast Asia tournament will feature a US$300k combined prize pool for Hearthstone, Dota 2 and Arena of Valor competitions. In addition to regional qualifiers, Singtel will also invite professional teams from Europe, China, and North America to participate.

The PVP eSports Championship follows Singtel’s recent partnership with local gaming peripheral company Razer. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding in May, agreeing to explore opportunities in the Southeast Asia esports market together, which included the possibility of co-hosting regional events. Gaming platform Garena and esports event organiser MET are also involved in the deal.

Singtel will host regional qualifiers in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, and India, working alongside regional telecommunications companies, in which Singtel owns at least a 20% stake: Advanced Info Service of Thailand, Indonesia’s Telekomunikasi Selular, Philippines’ Globe Telecom in the and Indian telco Bharti Airtel. In Australia, Singtel will also utilize its wholly owned subsidiary Optus. The content will be streamed on Singtel’s own mobile video platform Hooq, as well as on similar services run by its associate companies.

Arthur Lang, CEO of International at Singtel said the following in a statement, “Telcos have every right, and the assets, to play in the growing gaming ecosystem and we want to engage the largely millennial consumers across our regional footprint.”

Southeast Asia is an emerging market for the esports industry, and telecommunications companies in the region are looking to play a major role in fueling the rapid growth.

In April, Globe Telecom launched its own esports initiative in the Philippines, and in June, it was announced that multi-game franchised league was also launching in the Philippines, with major telco PLDT being one of the co-founding team owners. Riot Games and MTV are also collaborating on Hyperplay, Southeast Asia’s first major eSports and music festival in early August at Singapore’s Indoor Stadium, and Singtel has a sponsorship deal with this property.

Western telcos have also identified the potential of esports and are becoming increasingly more active in the space, although their involvement has largely been through sponsorship rather than direct tournament organization. European company Vodafone is currently a premium partner for multiple ESL events, while Vodafone Spain purchased the naming rights to Spanish organization Giants Gaming, rebranding the team to Vodafone Giants. AT&T has stepped into the market as ESL’s “official mobile gaming partner” for North American esports events, and T-Mobile is a partner of both the Overwatch League and one of its franchised teams, the Houston Outlaws.