China will have its own "NBA-like" e-sport matches within 5 to 10 years as the game market is set to continue to boom, game industry officials said on Sunday.
Xiao Hong, chief executive officer of Shenzhen-listed game firm Perfect World, said that China will develop e-sport matches along the lines of NBA in the U.S. amid a booming market which supports a big pool of players.
In 2017, the worldwide e-sport market revenue was U.S.$1.5 billion and the figure is set to rise to U.S.$2.3 billion in 2020, according to researcher SuperData.
Perfect World has set up a special team for e-sport to take care of management, intellectual property development and professional training, Xiao said during the DAC (DOTA 2 Asia Championship) held in Shanghai.
DOTA 2, one of the top MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) games, offered U.S.$37.1 million as total e-sport prize pool in 2017. Perfect World, distributor of DOTA 2 in China, is the major organizer of DAC in Shanghai and it has identified e-sport as one of its "top strategies".
Sixteen game teams, including from Russia and Malaysia, attended the DAC in Shanghai with prize pool of U.S.$1 million.
