ptkovsky
The professional competitive video gaming activities are now officially recognized by Thailand’s government. Esports is now equal in its rights to the professional sports industry in the Southeast Asian country.
TESF and esports
The country’s esports authority, abbreviated TESF, which stands for Thai ESports Federation, recently posted the important update on their social media account. The official newspaper, or the government gazette, has also recently published the corresponding announcement.
The designation of esports as professional sport, among with the professional esports associations and esports clubs, was earlier announced by Thailand’s committee of sports. The governmental authorities will now help promoting various esports titles, esports matches, esports tournaments, and support esports teams.
Esports became the fourteenth sport, which will benefit from Thailand’s governmental support. Other official sports in the country include Football, Basketball, Volleyball, Tennis, Badminton, Golf, and other regular sports titles.
According to the corresponding document, the country’s certified esports organizations, which were approved by the esports association, can now enjoy financial support from the professional promotion fund, and get other benefits from the Thailand’s sports authorities.
Projections
The Thai CS: GO scene and multiple professional Dota2 teams in the Asian country may be one of the first to actually benefit from the announcement.
There are statements among the analysts, that the Asian country’s digital entertainment market recently became one of the biggest on the globe, due to multiple reasons. There is an opinion, that Thailand’s gaming and esports industry’s market will be worth about $450,000,000 in 2021.
It is also reported, that there are approximately over 18 million of Thai people, who are referred to as gamers. This amount is said to be only slightly lower than in the Southeast Asia region’s leader — Indonesia.
IESF
The related esports authority, IESF, which stands for the International Esports Federation, based in Busan, South Korea, one of the first nations in the world to officially recognize esports as a sport, congratulated Thailand and their esports federation in the recent Twitter post:
Esports officially became a professional sport in Thailand! ?
Congratulations to Thailand, and the Thailand Esports Federation on achieving official recognition of esports as a professional sport ??https://t.co/EbhjrYkOVn
— IESF (@IeSF_Master) September 22, 2021
IESF recently awarded their World Esports Awards to Natus Vincere‘s member, the CS: GO team AWPer from Ukraine — s1mple, Gambit Esports CS: GO squad from Russia, ESL Gaming, and also one of the newest esports titles — League of Legends: Wild Rift.
The Korean federation organizes various international tournaments, such as the IESF series world championships in CS: GO, such as the IESF World Championship 2021, and also Dota 2 tournaments.