At the Global Media Congress, held by ADNEC and the Emirates News Agency – WAM, an event dedicated to one of the fastest-growing sports – Esports, was held.

BLAST Managing Director Charlotte Kenny spoke about the importance of this sport in the modern world, its differences from traditional sports, and its development prospects.

According to Charlotte Kenny, today people are professionally involved in esports. Live streams are regularly organized for the multi-million audience of the industry through platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch.

Esports began to develop rapidly during the pandemic. This can be seen by how many people watched the competitions and how much money they earned from it. Millions of funds were spent on competitions. The turnover of funds here is not much different from traditional sports games. During the pandemic, the number of people wishing to take part in them has increased significantly. Now esports is equated with media sports and traditional sports.

According to the expert, in 2021 the size of the esports market amounted to $1 billion. This amount is expected to reach $1.6 billion by the end of 2022. The growth rate of the industry is at least 15 percent per year.

For example, nine out of ten people in the UAE play video games such as FIFA, Counter-Strike, Dota, Minecraft, Call of Duty, and PES every day. These games are broadcast in 130 countries in 30 languages. The main age audience of esports is people aged 18-35, as they are well-versed in digital technologies.

Charlotte Kenny also noted that international tournaments are held every year in such cities as Abu Dhabi, Miami, London and Copenhagen only for the game “Counter-Strike”. They attract a lot of esports fans, and live broadcasts are watched by millions of people on different platforms. In short, esports has already grown into a huge industry.

It should be noted that many people in Uzbekistan regularly engage in e-sports. They have their fans. On November 16 this year, the Presidential resolution “On additional measures for further developing and widely popularizing esports” was signed.

By this document, esport in Uzbekistan is recognized as an official sport and the main directions for its development are determined.

Thus, a system of training and retraining professional cybersportsmen, coaches, qualified judges, commentators and other specialists will be introduced in Uzbekistan.

Starting in 2023, the Uzbekistan Esports Championships, the Cup of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and the Youth Cup will be held annually in Uzbekistan, on a traditional basis.

In addition, starting from the 2023/2024 academic year, the course “Sports activities: Esports will be opened at the undergraduate department of the State University of Physical Culture and Sports of Uzbekistan. Appropriate scientific and methodological manuals and literature will be published.

Shokhrukh Numonov, photos by Yoqubjon Meliboyev, UzA