Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries already has a sizeable presence in sports, owning cricket teams in various leagues around the world for instance. It also has interest in other sports like football. The group is now betting big on esports.
Reliance has stitched a joint venture with BLAST Esports, a subsidiary of BLAST ApS. BLAST is a Europe-based esports entertainment company. It is one of the biggest tournament organisers in the world and works with leading game publishers such as Epic Games, Valve, Riot Games, KRAFTON and Ubisoft to produce, market and deliver esports for popular titles in Rocket League, Fortnite, Rainbow Six, PUBG, among others. The combined active monthly player base of all the titles is over 350 million.
The interest of Reliance as well as BLAST in the Indian market is not surprising considering India is the fastest growing gaming market. The gaming base in the country is already estimated to be over 600 million or 18 per cent of the total gamers globally.
Projections are that India's gaming market will grow at 19 per cent compounded annually to $9.2 billion by 2029 compared with $3.8 billion in 2024. Esports, though still in a nascent stage, is expected to grow rapidly.
Reliance said that the strategic partnership with BLAST will help accelerate this growth by bringing the later's globally recognised esports properties and production techniques to India while co-creating new tournament IPs tailored to the fast-growing gaming market.
Globally, the esports market is seen growing at a 22 per cent CAGR to reach $16.7 billion by 2033, compared with $2.8 billion in 2024.
India is one of the "most exciting and fastest-growing" gaming markets in the world, with a rapidly expanding esports audience and appetite for more competitive gaming experiences, noted Robbie Douek, CEO for BLAST.
BLAST events are forecasted to generate 2 billion views in 2025, reach global audiences in over 150 territories and broadcast in over 30 languages.
"With this JV, Reliance will extend its interest in sports into esports and leverage RISE's (a sports, lifestyle subsidiary of RIL) ability to market and promote sporting events and teams, along with Jio providing its distribution and technology expertise,” said Devang Bhimjyani, head of Reliance Sports.
The strategic partnership will form a new JV entity and it will bring together BLAST’s esports media production expertise, publisher relationships, wide suite of highly popular IPs, and Jio’s technology expertise, distribution reach, and local relationships to host the events on the JioGames platform.