Manama: Zain Group, a leading telecom innovator in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, announced the highly transformational development of the launch of the ‘Zain esports’ brand, marking the beginning of a year-long calendar of large and exciting regional online esports tournaments comprised of multiple Flagship events as well as smaller, regular community tournaments with attractive cash and devices prize pools.
The new Zain esports brand is initially associated with a multi-nation and newly launched EA SPORTS FIFA 21 PS4 tournaments: Middle East Challenge powered by Zain esports, the first in the region, being held under an official partnership with EA SPORTS, a global leader in digital interactive entertainment and PlayStation. FIFA 21 is a football simulation video game published by EA SPORTS as part of the FIFA series, representing the 28th installment in the FIFA series, and was released October 9, 2020 for PlayStation consoles.
The inaugural regional tournament will see qualifying rounds taking place between 1-5 December as qualifying rounds, with playoffs and finals occurring over two consecutive weekends, on 8-9 and 15-16 December, 2020.
Zain esports has partnered with former FIFA eWorld champion and Saudi national, MsDossary in the inaugural EA SPORTS FIFA21 PS4 Middle Eastern Challenge, who will be heavily involved in the promotional aspects of this momentous event. Moreover, Zain Group is cooperating with eGen, a full-service e-sports agency and consultancy in the launch of Zain esports and this competition.
Since early 2019, Zain has been on a concerted drive to evolve from being a mobile-centric operator to a digital services provider for consumers, businesses, and governments, and the introduction of Zain esports activities forms a key part of this strategy.
“We are extremely excited with the launch of Zain esports, which marks a significant achievement in Zain’s diversification strategy and investment outside of areas related strictly to telco. This initiative meets a number of different goals for Zain, including youth development, enriching the brand, fostering innovation and digital opportunities on our 4G, 5G and Fiber networks, and creating shareholder value,” Zain Bahrain CEO, Duncan Howard said.
“Zain is a pioneer by nature, and the introduction of this latest initiative reiterates our outlook on being first-to-market with products and services that enhance the lives of the people in the communities we serve and beyond. We have every expectation that Zain esports is going to develop into a regional and international gaming powerhouse, and we are highly pleased and motivated to be working with recognized gaming partners and developers.”
