Electronic gaming (e-sports) will be included as an official discipline in the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, according to the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), Xinhua news agency reported.
The OCA made the announcement on Monday in Hangzhou, where it formed a partnership with Alisports, the sports arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Popular among young people, e-sports are enjoying very rapid development around the world. On April 7, the OCA announced the inclusion of e-sports in this year's Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The Games will feature electronic soccer games, among other e-sport competitions.
The categories of e-sports to feature in the Hangzhou Asian Games will be decided later, as will details on the new discipline's competition rules and doping tests.
Hangzhou will be the third Chinese city to host the Asian Games, the most important multisport event in the world's most populous continent. Chinese capital Beijing and south China's metropolis Guangzhou staged the Asian Games in 1990 and 2010 respectively.
