Alibaba invests $150 million into esports, including $5.5 million tournament
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba on Tuesday made a a $150 million investment in the International e-Sports Federation.
The IeSF and Alibaba will use the investment to help "esports be recognized as sports," including securing participation in the Olympic Games.
The investment includes a $5.5 million prize pool for an upcoming tournament, the World Electronic Sports Games. While no location, date or included games were announced, the IeSF release said the tournament's purpose was to "attract esports players from over 100 countries and regions."
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Alibaba also plans to build esports stadiums in China, according to the release.
The IeSF was founded in 2008, and counts 45 member nations including South Korea, China, Australia, Russia, Finland, Italy and Norway. Along with an annual tournament, its recent plans include presenting documents to the International Olympic Committee to get esports included in the event.
“As the most authoritative international organization in [the] esports industry, IeSF has been committed to promoting [the] esports movement into the mainstream,” said Zhang Dazhong, the CEO of Alibaba subsidiary Alisport. That includes "pushing it into the Olympic Games, which is consistent with our ideal. We are honored to cooperate with IeSF as the exclusive global partners in [the] long-term.”
Chelsea Stark was the Games Editor for Mashable, where she covered everything from AAA titles, mainstream consoles, indie gems, mobile games and gaming culture. She handled news, feature stories and reviews. Before that, Chelsea was Mashable's Multimedia Producer, where she helped develop visual storytelling aids, whether they were photos of video. She came to New York in 2010 to pursue her master's degree in journalism at NYU's Studio 20 program, which focused on innovation as journalism is changed by new technology. Before coming to New York, Chelsea lived in Austin, where she did online journalism and social media for the local CBS affiliate. She loves good beer, classic Nintendo games, and all things geeky, and spends her time attempting to find anything close to good Tex-Mex in Brooklyn.
