Photo/Shetuwang

Jan. 14 (NBD) – Tencent's Interactive Entertainment Group and Riot Games announced on Thursday the establishment of TJ Sports to promote the development of the esports industry, with registered capitals standing at 530 million yuan (78.4 million U.S. dollars), at a League of Legends (LoL) summit held in Shanghai.

At the summit, the latest data of League of Legend Pro (LPL) in 2018 was also released, showing the LPL live broadcasting was viewed more than 15 billion times for the year, an increase of 50 percent over the previous year. The number of individuals watching the 2018 League of Legends World Championship (S8) hit 99.6 million.

At the end of last year, news outlet Titan Sports released the top 10 sports events in China for 2018. LPL ranked third among the list, after Chinese Super League and Chinese Basketball Association. LoL was also the esports event that attracted the most attention at Jakarta Palembang 2018 Asian Games.

An industry insider once predicted esports will have greater influence than that of football in the years to come but also pointed out the industry still needs further commercialization. 

Tencent saw more potential in LoL from the victory of LoL club Invictus Gaming in S8. The set-up of TJ Sports signals the bigger ambition of the Chinese tech behemoth in the esports sector and its globalization.

NBD noticed that apart from the management and operation of LPL, TJ Sports will be responsible for the localization and commercial brokerage for the international events of Riot Games, as well as for the exploration of and investment into new businesses and products related to esports. For example, recently LPL authorization has been granted for an esports reality show.

Bobby Jin, co-CEO of TJ Sports, told NBD the esports industry started to gain popularity outside niche community in 2017 and Chinese teams' achievements in 2018 gave it a real burst. As the industry is becoming increasingly influential, more innovation should be sought in creating contents. In the future, TJ Sports will continue with esports TV shows and cooperate with famous stars on reality shows, Jin added.

In Jin's view, the establishment of TJ Sports is aimed at making esports businesses independent from games and integrating Tencent's game team with that of Riot Games. Moreover, independent companies are more flexible in offering authorizations, he noted.

Jin additionally disclosed that Tencent made little profits from the esports sector in 2015 and the monetization of esports only began in 2016. The long-term goal for TJ Sports is to gain revenues from diversified sources and realize sustainable development.

Lin Song, another co-CEO of TJ Sports told NBD that the priority of the commercialization of esports is that of the esports clubs. The esports joint venture will embrace commercial cooperation with a more open mind, Lin disclosed.

As for the monetization of customer-oriented businesses, Lin said they made foray into the live streaming segment last year to make breakthroughs and will continue the course in the future.

Email: wenqiao@nbd.com.cn