Gaming enthusiast Razer is boosting its phone brand status. The company announced on Monday that it has aligned with the 3 Group as part of a worldwide strategic coalition. The new partnership is Razer’s first with a mobile network operator.

The 3 Group, founded in 2002, is a telecommunications brand of international innovation and technology conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings. The company is into mobile data networks and mobile broadband technologies. It operates in Indonesia, Austria, Hong Kong, Denmark, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Sweden, Macau, Vietnam, Italy and the UK.

The collaboration aims to entice the gaming community with mobile devices, tariff plans and Razer’s very own virtual currency, zGold. The gaming company intends to dispense its products with the backing of the 3 Group’s mobile data networks. Razer’s first venture into the smartphone business commenced in January of this year with its acquisition of Nextbit Systems, the startup company that created the innovative cloud-based Robin Android handset.

Smartphone gamers were responsible for more than US$27 billion (AU$36.4 billion) of the global gaming industry’s US$100 billion (AU$134.7 billion) revenue in 2015, and Razer hopes that the new partnership pays off with the projected electronic gaming and eSports boom. The alliance helps the 3 Group’s goal of becoming the go-to network of the gaming community thanks to Razer’s 2.3 million registered users.

“The 3 Group has always embraced developing trends in the mobile sector, and mobile gaming and eSports are definitely on the rise,” 3 International Opportunities Development chief executive officer Susan Buttsworth said. “3’s partnership with Razer underscores our commitment to customers who are casual fans as well as those who are avid gamers of mobile eSports.”

A few days ago, Razer also announced its partnership with SK Gaming, a professional eSports organisation based in Germany. SK Gaming has teams across the globe that compete in various titles. It’s particularly known for being successful in Counter-Strike tournaments.

Razer and SK Gaming celebrated the new collaboration with an exclusive audio sponsorship. The former is set to provide the latter’s players with its latest pro gaming audio products. In exchange, the SK Gaming team members are going to back Razer during product development and marketing processes.

“We are incredibly excited to work with Razer,” SK Gaming managing director Alexander Müller declared. “Perfect audio is essential for our players and, with Razer, we can be sure that our teams are playing under the best possible conditions. Both SK Gaming and Razer have contributed to the growth of eSports over decades and together we aim to go even further in the future, which makes this a very natural fit.”

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