Esports is the new Cricket - how Gamer.LK made video games the #1 way to reach Sri Lanka’s youth

As more young Sri Lankans participate in Esports, the sport continues to expand. Despite being at an early stage as a sport in the country, Gamer.LK has made tremendous progress in promoting the sport through school, university, commercial, and international-level competitions. As competitive video games become increasingly integrated into popular culture, investors, corporations, media outlets, and consumers throughout the world are monitoring the rise of Esports’ popularity. There are 532 million Esports watchers worldwide in 2022, and Gamer.LK aims to include Sri Lanka in this growing market.

In 2019, Gamer.LK and other Sri Lankan Esports clans were appointed into the Sri Lanka Esports Association (SLESA) as the governing body. By September, Parliament declared Esports as Sri Lanka’s 70th sport. However Competitive gaming culture had existed since 2007, before social media. At the time, Gamer.LK was a pre-Facebook era Esports forum for those interested in games.

Fast forward to now, Gamer.LK owns and operates Sri Lanka’s first Esports Premier League (EPL) - an IPL-style league featuring Sri Lanka’s top Esports talent. EPL won the SLIM DIGIS Grand Prix Gold for Sri Lanka’s greatest digital marketing campaign, topping a record-breaking 270 rival campaigns. EPL was in its second season when the firm launched a 360-degree digital marketing campaign featuring cricket legends as brand ambassadors to promote the event to a cricket-loving nation.

The win foreshadowed Sri Lanka’s marketing industry shifts. Over 4 million Sri Lankans on social media, from casual gamers, enthusiasts to Esports athletes, are interested in video games and Esports. Millennials and GenZers watch their favorite gaming streams daily and some also compete. Popular game streamers play and engage with thousands of viewers daily.

With over a decade of expertise hosting both local and international Esports events and a robust network of game-streamers throughout the region, Gamer.LK has vast experience assisting businesses in reaching this typically difficult-to-reach youth market. This has prompted the company to join the South Asian Esports industry and cooperate with multi-billion dollar game publishers and some of the world’s greatest tech brands, who rely on their knowledge and expertise for these specialised services.

This expertise helped the company reach another milestone in 2022 when Tencent Games, the creator of PUBG MOBILE and one of the world’s largest game publishers, partnered with Gamer.LK to organize the PUBG MOBILE National Championship South Asia Wild Card (PMNC) with a USD 30,000 prize pool, equivalent to over Rs 10 million, the highest prize pool Sri Lanka has ever seen for Esports. Gamer.LK aired the competition in six languages using a TV-grade studio and even flew down broadcast talent for the final livestream. These casters were also able to enjoy Sri Lanka’s lovely beaches as the country is a known travel destination.

Gamer.LK promotes Esports so professional athletes, broadcasters, marketers, and others can create a career in this industry. The COVID-19 epidemic changed digital entertainment consumption, driving the company’s year-on-year growth rate to over 100% in the last three years.

Due to its accessibility, connectivity, entertainment value, and appeal among millennials and younger, the Sri Lankan Esports industry continues to expand and evolve despite the economic crisis, political upheaval, and worldwide pandemic.