LONDON: Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports, the world’s premiere e-sports competition for university students, and streaming platform Shahid announced on Thursday their latest collaboration to unite e-sports and broadcast TV.
The two organizations unveiled their new partnership that combines the two popular entertainment areas to offer an enhanced experience for young users of both platforms.
Mario Perez, CEO of MENATech, the AUE project host in the region, highlighted how the new partnership has the potential to benefit both industries.
“E-sports and streaming platforms are growing significantly in the MENA region, thanks to an increasingly young population and an increasingly virtual world. Due to this, this partnership empowers two ecosystems with great potential,” he commented.
Natasha Matos-Hemingway, chief commercial and marketing officer at Shahid, pointed out how the collaboration aligns with the Kingdom’s National Gaming and Esports Strategy, the government’s vision to establish the country as the world’s foremost gaming hub by 2030.
She explained how the strategy is a demonstration of the Kingdom’s government’s willingness to back the sector, and that “through collaborations of this kind, we are confident that we can help contribute to the ambitious National Gaming and Esports Strategy, which aims to make Saudi Arabia a global center for gaming and esports by 2030.
“This collaboration is a positive step forward for both Shahid and Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports; we cannot wait to see what the future holds for esports in the GCC and MENA region,” she added.
Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports is a worldwide collegiate league developed by Amazon, GGTech, and NUEL that runs leagues for university students in 16 countries spanning Europe, Latin and North America, and the Middle East.
The organization said since its launch in Saudi Arabia, it has had a huge growth in the number of players and teams, participating universities, and organizing competitions and events, making it one of the leading players in the esports field in the region.
Thanks to the numerous e-sports events held in the country, Saudi Arabia’s gaming sector has grown at a fast rate.
With a population of almost 40 million in the Kingdom, with more than half under the age of 25, gaming revenues have also been on the rise.
Along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the Middle East and North Africa region’s esports revenue is expected to exceed $5 billion by 2025.
