Zimpapers Logo

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter

VETERAN sports administrator and former journalist, Tommy Sithole, who was named as a member of the Global e-Sports Federation that was launched in Singapore on Monday together with Tyrone Seward, said his main role is to work on the governance and ethics of the organisation.

Seward is husband to Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister Kirsty Coventry.

The new global sport body was launched with the backing of Chinese multinational conglomerate, Tencent, and encompasses the entire e-Sports ecosystem.

Global e-Sports Federation aims to govern players’ organisations and commercial partners, among others.

“My role in particular is to do the governance and ethics part of it simply because one of the things that we are very careful about is gambling and you know that it has become a huge thing on the Internet. What we want to do is to regulate it so that people will enjoy themselves, have fun and continue to indulge in healthy lifestyles. So, our job is to encourage you and I to be part and parcel of this movement called healthy lifestyles,” said Sithole, who is also the Zimpapers board chairperson.

He said they will explore ways of controlling e-Sport to ensure that those participating in it subscribe to certain ethical values similar to physical sport and make them actual sports people in terms of healthy lifestyles.

“How do we incorporate the gaming industry into the e-Sport industry that it does not become addictive because at the moment there are no rules; people just sit there and go on and on. I must admit this is something that has never been attempted before. 

“For the first time, this is an international organisation, a global organisation, which is right in its formative stage. We sat there in Singapore to look into how to bring together millions of competitors around the world and hundreds of millions of spectators as well; people who watch e-Sport on the screens around the world and people who actually throng the stadiums now. 

“These days this is a massive undertaking, it’s moving forward, it’s becoming more and more mainstream sport. It’s, however, not quite regulated. Yes, there are other smaller organisations which tend to sort of look after particular sides of the industry, but this organisation we have formed and that we are privileged to be in the inaugural board, aims to bring competitors together. The industry, as you know, is massive, it’s everywhere, but there are no particular standards for the sport and that is what we want to do,” Sithole said.

According to esportinsider.com, the Global e-Sports Federation’s first five objectives going forward are set out as follows:

– Encourage and support the establishment of National Esports Federations with a set of relevant standards, guidelines and regulations

– Establish an athlete commission, with a focus on athlete well-being, development of standards for fair play, career support, and education to ensure safe, doping free, and ethically compliant practices

– Convene and stage e-Sports competitions, conventions, fora, and development programmes

– Development of world-class governance structures and guidelines for the Global e-Sports Federation

– Create, develop, and stage the annual flagship Global e-Sports Games, with the first Games to be staged in 2020.

The Global e-Sports Federation also confirmed that membership is open to sports organisations (including international and national federations), commercial organisations (including publishers, developers, sponsors and event organisers), and non-commercial organisations (including cities and other non-governmental organisations).

Newzoo, a games and e-Sports analytics and market research website, predicts that the global e-sport market is likely to reach US$1.8-US$3.2 billion in 2022.