ESI Digest: IOC makes esports debut as ePremier League moves to China

Presentation new Olympic virtual series (OVS) International Olympic Committee (IOC) caused headlines in the esports world last week.

Esports Insider sub-editor Tom Daniels The latest edition of ESI Digest runs through the week's major esports-related events, including the "huge" news that the IOC has partnered with five international sports federations and game publishers. we start the series.

“This will be the first esports/esports event to have an Olympic license,” Daniels said. The event is expected to coincide with Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020 and will be held from May 13 to June 23. It will feature virtual sports and esports such as baseball, rowing, sailing, motorsports and cycling.

“Some of the names chosen for the event are quite interesting. This eBaseball Powerful Pro Baseball 2020, Zwift, Virtual Regatta and Gran Turismo , and at the moment the rowing decision has not yet been made.”

Discussing how the tournament could go “very well,” he continued: “I think it’s really interesting to see how the Olympics are trying to integrate esports and esports into their product as a whole. I do think some of these titles are a little unknown. Bar Gran Turismo, other games are not what you would consider top tier esports.

"However, I think this is another stage of integration to see how it works, how the formatting works and how people react to it."

In addition, English Premier League joined forces with Tencent Sport, Tencent Gaming and EA Sports, to bring their sports simulation competition to China ePremier League.

Scheduled for April 28, the competition will feature "some of the best Chinese players" from FIFA Online 4, as well as carefully selected content creators and influencers representing all 20 Premier League clubs.

“According to the release, this is the first ePremier League event to take place outside the UK. Instead of traditional FIFA 21 or FIFA 20, the tournament will be played in FIFA Online 4 from EA Sports.

"I really think it's a smart initiative, especially since the Premier League itself wants to integrate more with the Chinese audience, and doing that through the esports initiative is also incredibly smart."

ESI Digest in partnership with RocketReel powered by Reely.ai is part of the ESI Network, a collection of podcasts covering the esports industry. If you'd like to dive deeper into the core areas of esports with experts in the field, visit ESI Focus . ESI Insight is a series for communication with key employees and key stakeholders in esports.

ESI Digest Post: IOC makes esports debut as ePremier League moves to China and first appeared on GamblingTV.com.