KUALA LUMPUR (May 6): Sedania Innovator Bhd is expanding its footprint in Latin America via its partnership with Arena Esports Pro Gaming, Mexico's premier experience brand, Versus Esports, Panama's and Columbia's vibrant e-sports community, and BrooTV, Ecuador's grassroots e-sports community. 

In a statement, Sedania said Arena Esports Pro Gaming aspires to implement the unique, mobile and online-focused tournament and e-sports content of ESPL for gaming fans throughout Mexico as a leading contributor to e-sports.

"In the past, Mexico has consistently proven its ability in helping brands, sponsors, pro-players, e-sport teams and affiliated organisations in amplifying their efforts regionally, and was ranked #12 in the world by consultancy Newzoo, and in 2020, Mexico City was named the 'e-sports hotspot' for its growth and future potential by Esports BAR," it said. 

ESPL is co-founded by Datuk Azrin Mohd Noor of behavioural data and technology firm Sedania Innovator Bhd, Kin Wai Lau, the founder of iCandy Interactive Ltd, a mobile game developer that serves a community of 350 million gamers and former chief executive officer (CEO) Michael Broda of eSports.com, a global e-sports media company. 

Azrin, who is also the founder and managing director of Sedania, said: "We started ESPL with the objective of having a global online ecosystem for tournaments, brands, publishers, teams and players with a focus on grassroots community engagement. 

"With all big sporting events currently in a shuddering halt and more than one billion people forced to stay at home worldwide, we believe this is the right time to expand our capabilities," he said.

He added with these partnership across Latin America, ESPL will be able to reach its objective by moving into fast-growing regions in competitive gaming, reaching further heights as the Latin American market alone has over 45 million viewers in competitive gaming and profit of over US$32 million (RM137.95 million). 

According to Sedania, the first ESPL season is currently scheduled for June to November of this year, with concrete details coming soon. To date, they have signed partnership agreements in Malaysia, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and India as part of the global roll-out of the Esports Players League in 2020. 

In addition, this year alone, they have secured backing from 500 start-ups, a famed Silicon Valley VC in early March and entered into a strategic partnership with India's most popular mobile wallet provider, Paytm First Games, in mid-April. 

"Previously, ESPL had announced partners including eGG Network, the largest e-sports TV network in Southeast Asia and Australia that reaches approximately 100 million TV viewers, and Malaysia's Axis Esports," it added.

Sedania traded flat at 17.5 sen at 11am, with a market capitalisation of RM43.96 million.