The trend of Esports has been increasing in Malaysia since the last Decade. It might
be because of the dependency of the people on internet. Internet users survey 2018 stated that approximately 42% increase has been observed in the number of internet users within Malaysia, which may also have increased the numbers of online gamers. Thereby, Esports is a massively growing industry but can it be still managed under the government’s Sports Development Act of 1997?
There are no dedicated laws to control and govern such growing industry, however, 27 years old, Sayed Saddiq Bin Syed Abdul Rahman, who happens to be the Minister of Youth and Sports Malaysia has taken an initiative and developed a 5 year strategic
plan and launched it on Nov. 21, 2019.
Sayed Saddiq, being the youngest federal minister of Malaysia, also keeps
Playstation 4 in his office along with football jerseys and books, which makes sense
because of his enthusiasm when it comes to making new plans to manage Esports.
He considers all these steps as a public service, and according to him public service
doesn’t discriminate when it comes to age. Young minister believes that as long as
his heart is in the right place anything can be achieved.
Saddiq’s strategy that has been presented to the government, consists of 144 pages
which includes concerns for athletes welfare, competitive integrity, national venue for Esports and a certification program. Initially, government of Malaysia has decided to
allocate 2.4 Million USD to initiate the development of Esports on a domestic level
while it’ll be doubled to 4.8 Million USD in 2020. The government is keen to
implement the strategies presented by young minister by standardizing the contracts
of the talented athletes. Improving gender quality by encouraging the female
participation has also been considered, building national venue and opportunities for
investment has also been taken into an account. The licenses would be issued to the
players, referees and training centers to control the rapidly growing Esports industry
in an efficient manner.
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