*This content was translated by AI.
The Korean Olympic Committee announced on the 28th that it will form a joint working group involving the government, sports organizations, and industry to proactively respond to Olympic eSports Games (OEGs) being promoted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The IOC created "Olympic eSports Games" in July 2024 with the aim of digital transformation of the Olympic movement and expanding participation by young people, and as a result, various stakeholders around the world are increasingly interested in the composition of detailed events and the selection of venues for the competition. According to major foreign media, the first competition is expected to be held in 2027.
Domestic sports organizations and the e-sports industry have also been paying attention to the policy, but e-sports is a field in which various institutional and industrial factors such as game intellectual property rights (IP), private league structure, industrial policy, military service and player status are intertwined, and unlike traditional sports, there are structural limitations for sports organizations to respond alone.
In response, the Korea Sports Association plans to form a working group involving experts from related ministries, the sports community, and the e-sports and game industries to review the possibility of attracting OEGs as well as establish an institutional and policy foundation for fostering and dispatching national representatives.
The working group will consist of officials from the Korean Sports Council, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, sports organizations, academia, and the e-sports industry, and will also consider additional composition according to changes in conditions such as the IOC's confirmation of the composition of events in the future. Through regular meetings and frequent discussions, the working group will discuss major tasks such as analyzing the OEGs policy and institutional environment, reviewing the selection and management system for national representatives, and deriving a government, sports, and industrial cooperation model.
Chairman Yoo Seung Min said, "Through the operation of this working group, we will strengthen the link between traditional sports and e-sports and seek ways to develop the Korean e-sports and game industry in harmony with the international sports stage."
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*This content was translated by AI.
