Alibaba partners with 20 Chinese cities for the “esports Olympic Games"

The WESG, considered the Olympic Games of esports, debuted in 2016 with international qualifiers leading up to a final held in China in January 2017. While the event attracted interest from players and spectators alike, hosting the event came at a significant cost to Alibaba. In a story published on the South China Morning Post, that cost was revealed to be over US$22 million.

In order to make the event’s cost more reasonable in the new year, Alibaba’s sports arm Alisports has drafted business partners in cities hosting qualifying events to take on a portion of the cost in helping to host regional qualifiers. Alisports will continue to supply staff for the events and will cover the prize money.

Alisports Esports General Manager, Wang Guan, confirmed that 20 Chinese cities are already working with WESG, and a cost reduction of 73% as a result of the partnerships.

Wang said tournaments in many other countries, ranging from Russia to South Africa, were also held offline and in person. For some countries, tournaments are held online given the difficulty to physically gather gamers together.

Wang revealed esports accounts for 40 % of the Alisports operation, with hopes the ratio could rise to about 50 %. What’s more, Alibaba is very much committed to WESG, having a 10-year agreement in place with the city of Changzhou, China to host the competition’s regional and world finals events.

Source: GMB / esportsobserver.com