ESPL, a Singapore-based company has been establishing an esports network and tournaments all over Asia for various games. The company wants to give amateur gamers a chance to become professionals - they raised over two million dollars just from these activities last year. This partnership with the gaming division of Paytm First Game means that ESPL would work as the producer for mobile and online esports tournaments in India. They will eventually cover all platforms, but initially, mobile is the only focus, as it is the most popular gaming platform in India.

Just yesterday, PFG's first foray into the Esports scene of India ended. The size of their first amateur tournament was pretty impressive, with over 500 teams competing in single-round elimination matches until only one left standing - the winner gets the major part of the INR 400k prize pool.

Paytm has been growing really fast in India - seeing more than five hundred thousand players active daily - with an average of 45 minutes per person per day. In the last month, due to the COVID-19 lockdown, they have managed to triple their user base, with seventy thousand players joining every day. Paytm's platform offer over 300 quizzes and games for enthusiasts - from winning games, players can exchange various rewards like Paytm cash, movie and flight tickets, cars, bikes...and more. Some of the most popular games on the platform are Clash Royale, First Captains, Ludo, Rummy and Quiz.

The tournament was held online - with over seventy thousand watchers on YouTube

According to Gupta, CEO of Paytm First Games, India is only at the early stages of Esports' evolution, and it would need a lot of investments and efforts in order to become successful. This is where ESPL, a professional esports tournament organizer comes in. While PayTM has organized a few tournaments, they don't have experience for larger-scale events yet.

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And this is where ESPL comes in: they will work as PFG's contractor to roll out the amateur esports platform in India. PFG's job is to establish a user base, organizing events and tournaments, secure local sponsors/partners and create local content. ESPL would support PFG by creating tech solutions, media deals, esports strategy, and global sponsorship. The First ESPL season would begin next month and would last until November.

For more information about India's growing Esports scene, please check out this post: PUBG Mobile’s Road To Become India’s Latest Cultural Phenomenon