India’s leading sports broadcaster, Star Sports and one of the world’s leading esports organisations, NODWIN Gaming have joined forces to provide the coverage of Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) Masters Series.
Star Sports will telecast the elite tournament in Hindi, Tamil, and English from June 24 to July 17, 2022, bringing esports to a wider audience. The tournament will be broadcast live on Star Sports 2 from the NODWIN Studios in New Delhi, which was designed specifically for large-scale esports tournaments. The competing teams will fight for a massive INR 1.5 crore prize pool.
The inclusion of esports in global multi-sporting events such as the Olympics, Asian Games, and Commonwealth Games demonstrates the sport’s increasing worldwide importance. As part of this partnership, the two involved entities will capitalise on the conventional sports-viewing audience while also having the chance to tap into the casual gamers pool living across the country, demonstrating the ability to build a career in esports.
The championship will pit India’s top 24 BGMI squads against one another. The teams, which have ruled the digital space with fan bases in the millions, will take their game prowess, star achievements, and rivalries to precise distribution for the nation to relish.
Sanjog Gupta, Head of Sports, Disney Star, said, “Esports in India is a fast-growing segment which has seen accelerated adoption over the last two years. It has immense headroom for growth in India when compared with its status in evolved markets around the world. It is also gaining prominence in the ecosystem as a competitive sport. Esports competitions have already developed a niche following on digital platforms. As the preferred destination for sports fandom, Star Sports is always looking for opportunities to engage fans, galvanise communities and recruit new audiences. Our partnership with Nodwin Gaming seeks to shape the future of eSports in India by introducing high quality competition and prominent players to millions of TV viewers around the country. It will hopefully fuel fandom for eSports amongst gamers and elevate aspiration amongst athletes.”
Akshat Rathee, MD & co-founder, NODWIN Gaming, said, “We have been working tirelessly through the pandemic to build the foundation for such a big collaboration. This is a very big step for us in the right direction as we now take esports to the masses. So far, esports has always been associated with live streaming on digital platforms. Through this collaboration with a mainstream sports channel, we hope to break that mould. Satellite television does have its advantages like its unrivalled reach across every nook and corner of the country, uninterrupted and timely broadcast that is not dependent on internet connectivity and speed as well as affordability for the masses living in far-out areas. We look forward to spreading the reach of esports, making a connection with the youth across India and bringing esports into the arena of other traditional sports.”