Globe Telecom announces the launch of its Globe Gaming initiative, to promote esports in the Philippines, and produce original content.

Globe will work with Riot Games and Garena to build sanctioned League of Legends and Arena of Valor events in the region.

Globe will also collaborate with the Mineski events team to bring back the Manila Masters tournament for 2019.

CEO Ernest Cu told TEO that Globe’s objective is “to bring Filipino gaming to the world stage.”

Globe Telecom, a leading telecommunications services provider in the Philippines, announced today that it will spin-off a new gaming division, designed to build events and promotional content in the region. The launch of Globe Gaming includes partnerships with Riot Games , Garena , and Mineski.

Speaking to The Esports Observer, Globe Telecom CEO Ernest Cu says that the Globe Gaming team is led by staff with backgrounds in the gaming space. “That’s the actual approach we use, not only in gaming, but other endeavours,” he says.

Globe previously partnered with Spotify and Netflix to help launch their respective apps in the Philippines, building activations such as a Spotify data plan, and public screenings of Netflix releases.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Globe will have naming rights for the upcoming Globe Conquerors Manila—a Riot-sanctioned event.[/perfectpullquote]

“The partner has to be willing to break the mould in terms of what marketing activities they want,” says Cu. “I think what we see with both Riot Games and Garena is that they’re willing to do these things, which will mean the staging of tournaments in a very different way.”

Riot Games is setting up a multi-country tournament structure in SEA for its title League of Legends , allowing winning teams direct entry to the World Championships. This includes a named-sponsored event, the upcoming Globe Conquerors Manila tournament—a Riot-sanctioned LOL event.

Garena, which publishes Tencent’s Arena of Valor mobile game in SEA, will work with Globe on marketing and content, and to roll out a series of Valor Cup tournaments which will allow teams a chance to compete in the AoV World Cup in Los Angeles, taking place this July. Globe will also be offering promotional in-game items for AoV to its Globe GoSurf tariff purchasers.

Despite the clear synergy between mobile esports and telco companies, there are few partnerships globally between the two industries.

“I think it depends on how one views his company,” says Cu. “If you view yourself as a telecommunications firm solely, then yes maybe it’s not interesting, maybe they don’t see it as a generator of subscription revenue. At Globe, we’ve always viewed ourselves as a digital lifestyle company, and now we are changing the way our customers consume data.”

Cu says that Globe does not intend to simply be a passive partner to the esports companies, but wants to produce tournaments that share in their respective revenue streams. “Telco revenue streams, as we all know, are in great jeopardy these days,” he says. “Calling, messaging, even data, which has now been commodified, are all in the most parts of the world declining. At Globe, we still enjoy growth because of market share gains, but we want to supplement as early as we can.”

The company’s partnership with Mineski, meanwhile, will see the return of the Manila Masters tournament in 2019. Mineski’s own Dota 2 team is sponsored by Malaysian airline AirAsia, and recently won the Asia Championships 2018—making it the first team in the SEA region to take a Major title.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Globe CEO Ernest Cu says the company will not be a passive partner to esports companies, but will produce tournaments and share in the respective revenue streams.[/perfectpullquote]

Asked whether Globe itself is looking into building out a team brand, Cu says that the company is still developing this concept, and will speak more about it at a later date. “The objective here, overall, is to bring the Filipino gaming to the world stage,” he says.

“The partnership with Mineski, is with authentic people who are truly deep in the space. They are a much smaller entity obviously than Globe, but offering their expertise and experience in the market, with our reach and distribution, and data analytics capabilities. I think we would not be able to build this ecosystem of gaming in the Philippines if either of us did it ourselves.”

The Philippines entered esports headlines earlier this year over the controversy with Galaxy Battles II, a Dota 2 competition that lost its Major status. The Philippines legally recognizes esports players as athletes, and thus requires them to attain official state licenses and go through mandatory drug testing.