VIETNAM ESPORTS WHITEBOOK 2021

VIETNAM
ESPORTS
2021
WHITEBOOK

“VIETNAM ESPORTS WHITEBOOK 2021” is made by Appota eSports in cooperation with Vietnam recreationl and electronic
Sports association (VIRESA).

INTRODUCTION
2020 was a special year for all careers in social and
economic life all over the world with the complicated
changes of the Covid- 19 pandemic. There were plenty of
effects that significantly changed the living habits as well
as the operation methods of all the products and services,
including the eSports industry. Vietnam Recreational
and Electronic Sports Association (VIRESA) as a focal
management unit of the eSports industry has made
a great effort to accompany every domestic and foreign
organization as well as enterprise to promptly adjust,
implement plenty of foundational activities to facilitate
sustainable development. In particular, the event that the
Organizers of SEA Games 31 officially announced eSports
to become one of the 40 medal sports is an important
milestone showing the recognition of the whole society
for eSports equal to traditional sports. In 2020, Vietnam
eSports still maintained and proved a great attraction
for viewers and fans. ESports is one of the few sports
that can maintain events and tournament systems in the
face of complicated development of the pandemic by
transforming organization models from direct to online
while ensuring the basic indicators having good growth in
the digital environment.
Mr. NGUYEN XUAN CUONG
President of Vietnam Recreational and Elec-
tronic Sport Association(VIRESA)

2020 is the year that the total official prize announced
by the top professional tournament systems has a
remarkable change with the largest statistics in many
recent years. Besides, there are many meaningful
activities of the eSports industry to join hands with
the community to prevent epidemics and share
difficulties with people in disaster-affected
areas. For the first time, the panoramic picture
of Vietnam Esports is summarized by VIRESA in
Vietnam Electronic Sports Whitebook 2021. This is a
yearly document published by VIRESA, with the
purpose of providing crucial information in the
eSports field, to help individuals, organizations as well
as enterprises work effectively and thereby make
the best contribution to the development of the
professional eSports environment in Vietnam. The
first White Book about Vietnam eSports includesofficial
statistics with a representative and comprehensive
content structure on the operation and currentstatus
of the entire Vietnam eSports industry. Besides, the
White Book also updates the newest trends in Vietnam
and the world, including the view of the sports economy
that manifests it first is the digital transformation
process in sports. This document is a directional
compass, which makes an overall analysis of how to
operate separated units in the eSports ecosystem
in Vietnam, contributed by reputable experts in the
industry. These metrics are the official information
collectedbyVIRESAaswellasnearly50seniorleaders of
the domestic and foreign enterprises; nearly 10,000
surveys from users as well as reputable domestic and
foreign reporting sources. All of them are appraised
by experts and experienced researchers. Vietnam
Recreational and Electronic Sports Association
hopes that the publication of the Vietnam Electronic
Sports White Book 2021 will not only be a useful
document for State agencies in policy-making but
also be a useful reference for organizations and
individuals in researching the market, as well as
business orienting in Vietnam. Vietnam Recreational
and Electronic Sports Association would like to thank
the agencies, organizations, businesses, and experts
that collaborate, provide information to build the
Vietnam Electronic Sports White Book 2021. We
welcome all the comments to make the publication
more and more complete.

SPECIAL THANKS TO
PUBLISHING PRODUCTION
PROFESSION SPECIALIST
7
VIETNAM ESPORTS WHITEBOOK 2021

Index
A. MARKET OVERVIEW
1. ESPORTS IN VIETNAM – GAMES AND THE HISTORY
2. VIETNAM ESPORTS MARKET INFORMATION
3. BEHAVIORS AND HABITS OF VIETNAM ESPORTS COMMUNITY
4. JURIDICAL AND MANAGEMENT POLICIES
5. REMARKABLE EVENTS IN 2020
B. THE ECOSYSTEM OF ESPORTS IN VIETNAM
1. GAMES PUBLISHERS
2. ESPORTS GAMES IN VIETNAM
3. ESPORTS TOURNAMENT SYSTEMS
4. PROFESSIONAL ESPORTS TEAMS
5. ORGANIZERS OF ESPORTS TOURNAMENTS
6. VENUES OF ESPORTS TOURNAMENTS
7. STREAMERS AND MANAGEMENT UNITS
8. PRODUCING AND BROADCASTING ESPORTS CONTENTS
9. SPONSORS
A. DEFINITION OF ESPORTS
B. THE WORLD ESPORTS MARKET OVERVIEW
C. NOTICEABLE TRENDS IN 2020
17
17
19
21
25
30
36
36
38
39
43
48
49
51
55
57
11
12
13
ESPORTS IN THE WORLD 10
THE BIG PICTURE OF ESPORTS IN VIETNAM 16
I
II
8 VIETNAM ESPORTS WHITEBOOK 2021

THEMATIC ANALYSING 62
III
A. ESPORTS ACCOMPANIES WITH
NATIONALDIGITALTRANSFORMATION
B. IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE
ESPORTS INDUSTRY
C. THE ROLE OF SPORTS ECONOMY
D. 5G AND THE FUTURE OF ESPORTS
E. ROAD TO SEA GAMES 31 OF
VIETNAM ESPORTS
F.ESPORTSMOVEMENTINSTUDENTS
COMMUNITY
63
66
68
71
73
77
A. EXPERTS INVOLVED IN THE CONSTRUCTION PROCESS OF ESPORTS WHITE
BOOK 2021
B. REFERENCES
APPENDIX 80
IV
81
83
9

A. DEFINITION OF ESPORTS
ESports is a form of competition under competition rules
using the scenarios of video games. It requires players
to compete with each other and it is professionally
organized with the organizers supervised by the
referees. In which the players can be from amateur to
professional players, tournaments also range from
movement to professionalism organized at local
Internet cafes to large-scale stadiums. Not only
providing games and tournaments with a rapid
improvement, but the eSports ecosystem also
provides many businesses that are forming and
growing to support each other such as renting out
venues, organizing tournaments, creating eSports
contents (streamer, influencer…), producing
and developing digital contents, sponsorship &
advertising.
1
nikopartners.com/esports-in-asia/
Esports, also known as eSports, is a factor promoting
the growth of coverage and revenue of the video games
segment in Vietnam and the world. It is considered a
revolution in the video games market because the op-
eration methods of eSports games have improved the
interaction between players and bring about a strong
community all over the world.
11

B. THE WORLD ESPORTS
MARKET OVERVIEW
Before 2020, the world eSports market tremendously developed with an annual growth of 10 - 15% and even the market’s
revenue exceeded 1 billion USD in 2019. However in 2020, because of the effects of Covid-19, Newzoo had forecasted that
the whole industry revenue would only reach 950,3 million USD and suffer negative growth in 2020.
According to Newzoo, the main factor that made the eSports industry revenue decrease is tournaments and big events
in that year were continuously canceled or postponed.
584.1 M
+7.5%
YoY
950.3 M
163.3 M
+3.3%
YoY 108.9 M
-11.6%
YoY
52.5 M
-50.3%
YoY
21.5 M
+60.9%
YoY
Sponsorship Media
Rights
On April 2020, Newzoo
announce global esports
revenue forecast
On July 2020, Newzoo adjust
global revenue forecast the first
time due to Covid-19’s impacts
On October 2020, Newzoo
adjust global revenue forecast
the second time, projected
negative growth rate
Publisher
Fees
Merchandise
& Tickets
Digital Streaming
2020 Total Esports Revenues
-0,8% YoY
Units: USD
19.9 M
+44.9%
YoY
Source: Newzoo
2
https:/
/newzoo.com/insights/articles/covid-19-continues-to-impact-the-esports-market-newzoo-revises-its-esports-revenue-forecast/
1.1 billion
USD
10.7%

973 million
USD
1.7%
953 million
USD
0.8%


Total global eSports market revenue in 2020 & annual growth

C. NOTICEABLE TRENDS IN 2020
495 million eSports audiences in 2020, in which the passionate fans account for 45%.
Unit: USD
Occasional viewer
Enthusiast viewer
* 5-year CAGR (2018-2023)
Source: Newzoo
395 M
222 M
245M 272 M
351 M
295 M
223 M
198 M
173 M
2018 2019 2020 2023
443 M
+12,3%(*)
YoY
495 M
+11,7%
YoY
646 M
+10,4%
Global eSporst viewership
One of the biggest improvements of the eSports industry in 2020 is the spike in consumption. According to
Venturebeat, 70% of people from 16 to 64 years old have played or been exposed to eSports in the past few years
and this has also led to a spike in the number of viewers. A new report from CTA and Newzoo forecasted that the
number of eSports viewers in America will reach 22 million in 2022 and the number of global viewers will reach 646
million the next year. It is possible to comment that eSports is coming of age and growing at a rapid pace. This means
that new business opportunities are opening up for eSports, just like other high-speed growing industries: content
broadcasting rights, emerging streaming platforms, increased coverage, and it seems that eSports has also gradually
gained a more correct and broad view in society. ESports is being driven by young consumers.
1. THE TREMENDOUS GROWTH OF THE ESPORTS
CONTENTS CONSUMPTION
13

Spain
UK
Italia
France
Holland
Belgium
German
Sweden
Finland
Norway
No changes
Spent less time watching
eSports
Spent more time watching
eSports
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
70%
66%
64%
63%
51%
50%
48%
42%
34%
25% 50% 25%
50% 16%
39%
39% 18%
13%
32%
31% 18%
18%
28% 9%
28% 8%
25% 9%
21% 9%
80% 90% 100% 110% 120%
Streamlabs provides some interesting observations
in the third quarter reports of 2020. A majority of
streamers still chose Twitch, accounting for 91.1%
market share of total streaming hours, which increased
by 14.5% compared to the second quarter of 2020. The
reason for this significant increase was Microsoft’s
discontinuation of Mixer. However, Facebook Gaming
also saw an increase in market share, increasing by 1%
compared to 3% in the last quarter. YouTube Gaming
did not benefit much from the end of Mixer, which fell
1.2% and had a market share of 5.5%.
Specific to Twitch, total live watching time in 2020 reached
889 billion minutes, increasing from 660 billion minutes in
2019. Likewise, there were 4,4 million people live streaming per
monthonTwitchin2020,comparedto3,64millionin2019.This
platform has also seen a steady increase in simultaneously
streaming channels. This number increased by 20%
in 2019, with 49.500 simultaneously streaming channels. In
2020, the increase so far was 69%, with 83.900 simultaneously
streaming channels. Therefore, there are plenty of activities
on these platforms showing that eSports fans are extremely
positive and interactive with the related content.
Covid-19 made many people increase their time spent on streaming platforms such as Twitch, Youtube, or Facebook
Gaming. Specific to Twitch in 2020:
Share of total watch hours in QIII/2020
Twitch
91.1%
YouTube Gaming Live
5.5%
Facebook 3.4%
Source: Statista
Source: Streamlabs
4
https:/
/www.statista.com/statistics/1192329/esports-viewership-covid-europe/
5
https:/
/influencermarketinghub.com/growth-of-esports-stats/
Total live watching time:
889 billion minutes 34%
compared to 2019
People live streaming per month:
4.4 million people  22%
compared to 2019
Simultaneously streaming channels:
83,900 channels 69%
compared to 2019

2.THESHIFTTOTHEONLINEFORMANDTHEADAPTATION
OFTHEESPORTSINDUSTRYAMIDTHEPANDEMIC
Under the impact of Covid-19, eSports tournaments
have been fortunate to still be able to organize online.
This meant there were no more live events and no more
spectators coming to the stadium. Teams were forced to
compete remotely and the organization of the tournament
changed a lot to suit the audience watching online 100%
as well as the athletes not gathering at one point.
While not completely freezing operations, the esports
industry is not a completely online business. There has
been a significant disruption to global tournaments as
well as offline events and this has taken a significant loss
to the industry in general and large and small businesses
in particular. For example, Epic Games didn’t organize
the Fortnite World Cup in 2020, meanwhile, the planned
tournaments for League of Legends, FIFA 20, Hearthstone,
Apex Legends, Call of Duty, Rocket League, and other
eSports games had been postponed or canceled. Events
that gathered a large number of fans such as TwitchCon
and BlizzCon were also affected by the pandemic. As social
distancing continues, tournament organizers or events
still have to manage to ensure those events can take
place entirely online rather than offline. This brings about
many challenges in ensuring a fair playing field for the
athletes. Some of which are the stability of the Internet
connectivity between the competition venues
and foul preventions. For example, PUBG Mobile
Pro League Americas tournaments used dedicated
servers to ensure parity for players in North and Latin
America, as well as software to ensure players are
running the right equipment and even use cameras
to verify their identity. For the League of Legends
European Championship, Riot Games briefly addressed
similar issues, as a result of which the tournament’s
statistics such as online views reached positive numbers.
Moreover, media efficiency and sponsorships of partners
such as Warner Music Group and Kitkat reached more
than 12 million people on social media, despite the
disruption caused by Covid-19. Lessons learned from
these events and many other events in the Covid-19
pandemic will be extremely useful in the future.
They help the eSports industry operate live events more
effectively and smoothly, even when offline events will
probably be back in the future. The financial impacts of
Covid-19 on the eSports industry are still in the process
of being considered by the research units. Certainly,
some companies have reported difficulties immediately.
Super League Gaming has seen their revenue slightly
decreased compared to the same period last year,
they claim that the reason is the delays in advertising
spending by brands and sponsors in the early weeks of
the pandemic. Allied Sports Entertainment has seen a
similar drop in revenue when they closed the eSports
arena in Las Vegas as soon as a lockdown was imposed
in the city.
Beside that, to compensate for the financial deficit in
the past few years, a lot of supporting business model
or business idea has also been realized, the Fight2Fund
or Twitch’s Stream Aid event; the Streamathon by Riot
Games or the Quarathon from Team Liquid and the
100 Thieves’ Jersey sale stream for charity are all great
example of how the eSports industry has overcome the
challenge of adapting to the changes in the middle of the
Covid-19 pandemic.
15

II
THE LANDSCAPE OF
ESPORTS IN VIETNAM

A. MARKET OVERVIEW
a) POPULAR ESPORT GAMES IN VIETNAM
eSports are categorized by different distinct criteria, for example: Content, method of conducting competitions, skills,
strategies.
Genres of eSports are defined by the similarities in their basic criteria. In Vietnam, some of the most popular eSports
genres and games includes:
b) THE HISTORY
Early days
The eSports community in Vietnam was formed back in the early 2000s with the debut of early eSports games like
Starcraft, Counter Strike 1.1 and AOE.
At this point in time, the communities were mostly self-formed and were limited by the skill-level of the players and by
the rarity of competition.
In the year 2002, Vietnam marked its first step in the international scene with its participation in the World Cyber Games
(WCG) by competing in AOE.
The Evolution
The period between 2003-2008 saw an extraordinary growth in the community with the formation of different Clans
and it created, for the first time ever, a competitive scene.The number of eSports games that were played has also grown
with the explosion in popularity in games like Fifa Online, Counter Strike 1.6, Cross Fire and especially DotA and Warcraft.
DotA, a custom map in Warcraft III at that point has become the most popular eSport, changing the whole vietnamese
gaming industry which was dominated by the MMORPGs from China at that time. MOBA was then taking over the scene
with the growth of DotA.
1. ESPORTS IN VIETNAM – GAMES AND THE HISTORY
GENRES
MOBA Battle Royale First Person
Shooter (FPS)
Sports Simulation Real-time
strategies(RTS)
e S p o r t
title
- League of Legends
- Arena of Valor
- Wild Rift
- DotA 2
- Mobile Legends:
Bang Bang
- PUBG
- PUBG Mobile
- Call Of Duty Mobile
- Garena Free Fire
- Counter Strike:
Global Offensive
- Valorant
- Crossfire
- eFootball PES
- EA FIFA
- FIFA Online 4
- Age of Empires
(AOE)
- Starcraft
17

Source: dotavn.battle
The StarsBobas reached their peak when they won a
series of championships in Asia at WCG 2008-2010, Asian
DotA Championship 2008, etc and put Vietnam on the
map for the international competitive scene.
In 2009, The Vietnam Recreational And Electronic Sports
Association (VIRESA) was founded, setting a new mark for
eSports being managed at a national level, the decision
was made by the goverment (Order number 42/QĐ-BNV
date 13/01/2009)
Orders and Terms of VIRESA at:
http:/
/viresa.org.vn/quyet-dinh-thanh-lap-viresa
http:/
/viresa.org.vn/dieu-le
Professionalization and laying foundation for the future.
In 2011, Garena had a significant shift when they started
publishing eSports games in Vietnam, namely League of
Legends, which now has the most active player base in
Vietnam and in the world.
ESports have been becoming an industry while it has
become more and more professional with the
proper investment of foreign corps. Along with
this development, the variety in the esports games
continues to grow in the Vietnamese market, for
example: PUBG, Call of Duty, Free Fire, Auto Chess,
and the community of people watching and playing
eSports games expands.
Professional tournaments, sponsored by game
publishers, came with a bigger and bigger prize
pool, and rapidly breaking records annually. ESports
have also caught the attention of different sponsors,
investors and further enlarging the income and job
opportunity for the industry.
StarBoba winning the dota WCG 2009

Internet speed in Southeast Asian countries (November/2020)
Source: SpeedTest Global Index
Source: Appota
In 2020, Vietnam has also commercialized 5G, this has
massively increased the Internet speed for mobile
devices. A crucial part in the enhancement of the
eSport experience on mobile devices.
In 2020, the gaming market reached 40 million players, of
which 18 million played eSports.
2. ESPORTSMARKETINVIETNAM
Smartphone penetration
Internet penetration
Mobile Internet penetration
3G/4G subscription
Fixed Internet speed (Unit: Mbps) Mobile Internet speed (Unit: Mbps)
45% of population
70% of population
43% of population
53% of smartphone user
6
http:/
/speedtest.net/global-index
308.85
245.31
34.51
22.5
23.32
25.29 35.85
66.82
31.44
60.88
25.6
19.22
28.28
17.26
eSports players eSports enthusiast viewer
3
5
15
18
2
3.8
5.2
8
2019
2018
2017
2016
Number of people playing and watching eSports on a regular basis in 2019 (Unit: million)
19

Source: Pops eSports
Prizepool from eSports of Southeast Asian countries up to December/2020 (Unit: Millions of USD)
Genders and age groups
* https:/
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfwXR4kPg_c
* https:/
/www.slideshare.net/appota/vietnam-mobile-marketing-and-game-2019-vietnamese-151655941
3.7
13.8%
17.2%
16.9%
14.7%
12.5%
7.6%
6%
4.3%
1.3%
5.6%
Unit: Year
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4
7
8.5
10
Singapore Vietnam Thailand Philippines Malaysia
30.3%
69.7%
Female
Under 13 years old
23-27 years old
13-17 years old
27-32 years old
18-22 years old
Above 32 years old
Male
40.8%
12.7%
35%
Evidently, we can see that 2 of the most popular age group is 13-17 and 18-22, the 2 groups made up 75.8% of the survey
pool.
The community has also only experienced eSports in the past 1-5 years.

Your monthly income?
Percentage of player that are willing to spend money on eSports game by age groups
Most of the eSports community does not have the high income
51%
57%
64%
13-17 years old 18-22 years old 23-32 years old
Gen Z is also willing to spend on eSports game
Gen Z is not the group with sustainable income. Yet they are also willing to spend on eSports game with the rate at about
51-57%. This is not a small figure when compared to Millennials (64%). This has shown the potential in huge revenue from
Gen Z in the future.
3. BEHAVIOR AND HABIT OF THE ESPORTS
COMMUNITY IN VIETNAM
No income
7,000,000 - 11,999,000 VND
1,000,000 - 2,499,000 VND
12,000,000 - 17,999,000 VND
2,500,000 - 6,999,000 VND
Above 18,000,000 VND
12.5%
9.4%
56.7%
12.1%
percentage
%
COMMUNITY
56.7%
9.3%
24.6%
No income
Has income above 12 million
Income ranging from
2.5 million - 12 million VND
21

Smartphone is the platform to approach the eSports community.
On average the esports community plays more than 1 eSports game.
Which device do you use to play eSports
games?
How many eSports games do you play?
Players play 2 esports titles on average Viewers watch 1.75 esports titles on average
Smartphone has become the most common way to play eSports games for the Vietnamese community now, reaching up
to 58.3%, right behind is PC/Laptop with 39.5%
For the viewers, smartphone is overwhelmingly more popular when it comes to consuming eSports content with 70.7%.
Which device do you use to consume eSports
content?
How many eSports games do you watch?
58.3%
39.5%
70.7%
22. 3%
PC, Laptop
Console
(PlayStation,
XBox
Smartphone
Tablet
PC, Laptop
2 titles
2 titles
Smart TV
4 titles
4 titles
Smartphone
1 titles
1 titles
Khác
5 titles
5 titles
Tablet
3 titles
3 titles
33.9%
40.5%
50.2%
34.4%
10.2%
3.5%
1.8%
25.6%
16.5%
5.1%

Gamers spends more time on eSports than ever
MOBA is still dominating
Which genre of eSports game do you play
most often?
52,5% eSports viewer watch everyday, while they spent 2 hours 55 minutes per day on average
MOBA is still the most favoured genre for both players and viewers followed by Battle Royale
Which genre of eSports game do you
consume content from most often?
Chart on the frequency of eSports playing each week Chart on the number of hours spent playing each day
4-5 time per week 1 time per week
play weekly Does not play
2-3 time per week
52.5%
18.9%
22.2%
16.3%
33.7%
24.8%
11.9%
6.2%
1 2 3 4 5
Battle Royale FPS
MOBA Sports
Other
Strategy
54.1%
14.6%
19.4%
54%
22.1%
14.7%
23

eSports community does not have strong spending power yet
Entertaining and enjoy with friends is the major reason to play eSports
Have you spend money on in-game items?
What is the main reason for playing eSports?
55.5% players spent money on eSports titles’s in-game items. Most of the eSports community aged between 13-22,
therefore most did not have stable income
Therefore, multiplayer titles which increases players interaction such as MOBA and Battle Royale are more favoured in
Vietnam market.
No
Yes
Develop skillset in gaming
Play with friends
Play at free time
Being a fan of the eSports titles or team
other
Entertainment
55.5%
44.5%
37%
14.8%
26.8%
10.8%
8.3%

4. LEGISLATION POLICIES AND MANAGEMENT
Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong
Policies and legislations for Vietnamese’s eSports scene: Untie the knots for a breakthrough
Chief Officer of Media Development and Policy
Research Institute
‘eSports’ is a prosperous business industry with lots of potential. In order to help Vietnamese enterprises reach their
full potential in this industry, the legislation blockages of licensing ; content moderation; copyright protection will
soon have to be removed. Besides, each enterprise participating in the industry must focus on providing customers
safety and benefits, in the hope that people will have a clearer view of the eSports scene. A boost from suitable
changes in policies and legislation is likely to make eSports a spearhead in Vietnam’s growing digital economy.
25

(http:/
/viresa.org.vn/van-ban-phap-ly-khac )
- Cicular number 09/2012/TT-BVHTTDL on November 9th
2012 by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stipulated
on the organization of sports for the masses
(http:/
/viresa.org.vn/van-ban-phap-ly-khac )
- 2017’s Law on eSports Competition regarding the
organization of League of Legends, CrossFire
and FifaOnline 3: Details can be found at VIRESA’s
website: http:/
/viresa.org.vn/van-ban-phap-ly-khac
A few notable points about licensing rules and organizing
eSports tournaments:
- Documents regulating procedures and basic content are
referenced in accordance with the guidance in TT09 / 2012
/ TT-BVHTTDL in which the classification is divided into 3
basic groups:
National scale tournaments, in centrally-run cities and
provinces
Tournaments in districts, towns, provincial cities and
grassroots tournaments
International tournaments in Vietnam
- Corresponding to these 3 groups, the Circular
has detailed and specific instructions on reporting
records and the process of interaction with competent
authorities and functional units.
- The focal point unit assigned to professionally manage
e-sports activities in Vietnam is the Vietnam Association
of Electronic Sports and Entertainment (VIRESA). VIRESA
plays a bridging role, representing the state management in
professional activities for the electronic sports industry in
Vietnam. Therefore, VIRESA will be an important and basic
address for domestic and foreign units to participate in
the e-sports ecosystem in Vietnam, exchange cooperation
and coordinate the implementation of effective activities
orientation, in accordance with the law.
- Most recently, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and
Tourism issued Circular 01/2021 / TT-BVHTTDL dated
February 3, 2021 specifying the implementation of the
state management function on physical training and
The organization of eSports tournaments are executed
under these laws:
- 2006’s Sports Law and 2018’s renovated Sports Law.
The policy system and legislations for the eSports
market are predefined and facilitated to help with the
scene’s growth. However, local enterprises are still
facing hardships and continues to look at positive
shifts in the legislation environment towards reaching
out to the region and the world, while still maintaining
the Vietnamese nature. Four of the main problems are
content moderation; licencing and competition law;
better protection of intellectual property; and indus-
trial contracts of mutual interests.
a) Content moderation problems
About content moderation, legal documents directly
related to information security, content censorship,
including 2015’s Law of Information Safety on the
Internet, 2018’s Law of Internet Security; decree
number 72/2013/NP-CD renovated by the decree
number 27/2018/NP-CD (ongoing renovation);
the 15/2020/ND-CP decree which stipulated the
penalizing of administrative violations in post and
telecommunications, information technology and radio
frequencies.
Nowadays, there are plenty of regulations regarding
information security on the internet that still needs
perfecting and to put the criterias in details.
To eSports, the game’s content will also be under
specialized moderation of the Ministry of Information
and Communication. As a result, there are still unclear
points that need to be made transparent with their roles
and responsibilities in managing eSports competitive
games’ content. It will be a task that VIRESA must focus
on handling to ensure the best possible environment
for the Vietnamese’s eSport industry’s growth, while
being realistic with the given conditions.
b) Licensing tournaments and eSport’s Law for
competitions

sports. with the National Sports Association. In which,
the decentralization of management and licensing for the
organization of sports tournaments is specified in each
specific scale.
In addition, according to the plan announced by VIRESA
on January 13, 2021, in the first quarter of 2021, VIRESA
will continue to improve and promulgate the updated
and complete Law on eSports Competition for 10 sets
subject announced in the list of National Electronic
Sports Tournament. This will be the most basic premise
and reference basis for tournament organizers as well
as professional competition training activities of athletes
or teams, investors and commercial operators. activities
related to esports.
VIRESA also announced plans to issue the Professional eSports
Regulation in 2021. This Regulation will be the basis for the
management and implementation of professional esports
activities in Vietnam, including basic content such as:
- Registration and certification of athletes, professional
coaches, national and international referees , etc.
27

- Registration and certification of professional eSports clubs
and teams
- Regulations and sanctions on transfering athletes
- Stipulate the criteria related to athlete class assignment
under the guidance of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and
Tourism and the General Department of Sports and Sports
- Regulations on organization of national eSports tourna-
ments, national team regulations
Thus, it can be seen that basically the activities of comple-
ting legal bases, strengthening legal documents to guide the
implementation and forming a methodical and professional
handling flow have been and are being closely monitored by
agencies. The State pays close attention and coordinates the
implementation. With the plans announced by VIRESA, do-
mestic and foreign businesses, organizations and individuals
participating in the e-sports industry will have more peace
of mind and have a focal address to make recommendations
and additional adjustments to an increasingly complete legal
corridor to ensure a sustainable development and a safe
legal environment for investors.
c) Intellectual property rights.
The first is copyright to video game software. Typically,
copyrights of video game software belong to the game
developer and are protected by national laws and
international treaties to which that country is a party. In
Vietnam, video game software is usually protected in the
form of computer programs under the 2005 Intellectual
Property Law, amended in 2009 and Berne Convention
1886. Game developers have exclusive rights to use , copying,
transferring games, except for some strict exceptions for other
subjects to use, reproduce without permission, without paying
remuneration or with permission but no remuneration. This
raises the issue of licensing for esports event hosts. Therefore,
the host organization of the esports tournament needs to
prepare the application procedure and the compensation
agreement for the product developer.
Second, related rights to performances, recordings, recor-
dings, broadcasts on OTT platforms (Youtube, Facebook…).
Currently, performers such as singers, actors and dancers
are credited with related rights to their performances on
the recording and recording media and made available to the
public. However, whether players or content creators (this
term is used collectively by esports professionals and content
creators) are recognized as performers and thus are related
rights protection for their style of play? These issues raise the
need to adjust the current Intellectual Property Law to be
compatible with the digital environment.
d) Cooperation agreement
Cooperation contract is an agreement between individuals
and legal entities to contribute property and effort to perform
certain jobs, benefit and take joint responsibility (Article 504
of Civil Code 2015). . In the case of esports, this contract is
concluded by the player / team and the manager or sponsor.
Players / teams need to clearly define their rights and
obligations, especially the profit-sharing mechanism, the
payment mechanism, the risk-sharing mechanism in the
contractual terms, especially to avoid confusion. between
cooperation contract into labor contract. Currently, in
practice, cooperation contracts may have other names as
management contracts, the parties often stipulate based
on the Civil Code and Intellectual Property Law, including
the provisions of rights and obligations. The two sides
revolve around copyright, the right to distribute products
to the public, the right to use images, divide remuneration,
resolve disputes ...
In an esports cooperation contract, the signatory needs to
pay attention to the force majeure event clause to enjoy the
right to be exempt from civil liability when the obligations
are due. Currently, force majeure events are specified in
Civil Code 2015, which are understood as events that
happened objectively, which cannot be foreseen and
cannot be overcome despite all necessary measures and
capabilities. allow. In addition to natural events such as
natural events (natural disasters, epidemics) or man-made
events (violence, war), it is important to understand that
force majeure can be network inaccessibility, loss of data
due to network attack, server error.
[1] The current Vietnamese law provides for different types of licenses related to the digital content industry such as permits to establish general websites,
permits to establish social networks; licensing of content service provision on mobile telecommunications networks; license to provide video game services on
the network.

5. 2020 HIGHLIGHTS
a) TEAM FLASH’S SUCCESS, ESPORTS’ PRIME EXAMPLE
OF GREAT INVESTMENT
Already a major organization in Singapore’s eSports scene
and officially announced it’s investment on Vietnam in
2018. Team Flash íd organized under a multi-disciplinary
model in which the most successful are Arena of Valor
(AOV) and League of Legends (LOL). In its development
roadmap, Team Flash has raised $ 1.5 million in capital
and focused on recruiting talent and investing in enhancing
brand value. Thanks to a well-established roadmap, Team
Flash team quickly demonstrated its superiority in the
professional arena, especially AOV and brought a series of
successes to the team itself as well as Vietnamese eSports
in general0.
At AWC 2019, an international AOV tournament, Team
Flash won the championship and marked the first time a
Vietnamese team won an eSports tournament in the world.
In the domestic AOV scene, Team Flash team established a
record of dominating the tournament in 2019 and achieved
4 championships in the same year, with a record prize
amount of 11 billion VND.

Garena’s Vice President of Strategic Partnership
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Mr. Jason Ng
“The victory at AWC (Arena of Valor World
Cup) 2019 of Team Flash showed how tal-
ented at eSports Vietnamese players are.”
Not only successful in AOV, Team Flash
League of Legends is also considered one
of the most promising League of Legends
teams in Vietnam besides GAM eSports.
The team also had outstanding success
in 2020 when they won the Spring VCS
and the Summer VCS consecutively after
defeating GAM itself in two finals.

b) VNG EMERGING TO BE GARENA’S RIVAL AT PUBLISHING ESPORTS GAMES
eSports titles published by Garena and VNG
In the period of 2011-2012, Garena launched League
of Legends and Fifa Online 3 in Vietnam. Marked a big
change with the introduction of eSports officially to
Vietnam market. The success of League of Legends in
Vietnam has made Garena the pioneer in the eSport
segment and a great success when it became the
second largest game publisher in terms of revenue
in 2013. Then in 2016, AOV was launched and in just
4 years, the success of this mobile MOBA is so great
that AOV has become the eSports sport with the largest
number of players in Vietnam, astounding international
performances and always holds records for the number
of visitors, viewers as well as records of awards.
From 2017 to 2018, VNG marked its entry into
the eSport distribution market with the first
blockbuster Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and other
products mostly from Tencent developer. Although
not having many years of experience in eSports,
VNG has made a milestone with the copyright
acquisition of many famous sports, especially with
the acquisition of League of Legends: Wild Rift.
The number of eSports games that VNG publishes
has surpassed Garena in both quantity and genre,
contributing to creating a two-code race between
two major publishers in Vietnam.
c)COVID-19CHANGESHOWESPORTINDUSTRYOPERATE
Covid-19 has left a significant impact on the macro level of /
entertainment industry in general, and eSports in particular.
In terms of revenue, 2020 showed a downward trend in the
amount of funding received from different brands due to the
effects of the pandemic on the economy. In addition, a series
of major eSports tournaments, from amateur to professional
level,hadtoswitchtoonlinemethod/platform,eitherwithout
any audiences or be cancelled entirely.
However, Covid-19 also showed some positive influences
in eSports in the long run. Social distancing and staying
home for a long period of time have made gaming and
eSports become a popular type of entertainment in many
countries, not just Vietnam. Survey has reported that 80
percent of people spent more time playing and streaming
eSports-related contents during Covid-19 period, as well
as the number of downloads and streaming time inflated/
boosted significantly during the first two quarters of 2020
According to Reputa, Arena of Valor, Garena Free Fire and
PUBG Mobile are ranked among the top 3 of most-played
games during the pandemic, which surprisingly are all
created by major publishers in Vietnam.
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d) THE APPEARANCE OF 5G BROADBAND NETWORK
Not only around the world but also Vietnam, major
network operators as well as smartphone brands
are urgently preparing for the next generation of
mobile networks. By the end of 2020, all three big
network providers, including Viettel, Vinaphone
and Mobifone, had officially launched 5G trials.
Especially, Viettel has shown its pioneering step of
producing 5G equipment itself, as well as testing
coverage in some major districts of Hanoi and
5G development roadmap in Vietnam
5G development milestones in Vietnam
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Ho Chi Minh city. Therefore, in the near future,
there would not be delayed in the gradual/progressing
increase in 5G coverage, as all companies are showing
their own efforts.
In terms of Technology, 5G outperforms 4G in every
capabilities of connection.
For eSports, the outstanding connection speed or latency
of the 5G network will play a vital role in enhancing the
experience of playing and watching eSports.
Source: congnghe.tuoitre.vn
Jan 2019
Viettel was granted
permission to pratice
5G on trial
April 2019
Mobifone was granted
permission to practice
5G on trial
June 6th 2020
Viettel experiment 5G on large
scale
17th Jan 2020
The first video call via 5G was
made.
2020 to 2021
Mobile carriers continue to commercialize 5G
July 2020
Vinsmart announces successfully
produce the first “made in Vietnam”
5G smartphone
August 20th 2020
Broadband 24,25 - 27,5 GHz was used
for 5G Network development and
research
June 2019
VNPT was granted
permission to
practice 5G on trial
May 2019
Viettel and Ericsson made the first
call via 5G in Vietnam

e) THE FIRST VIETNAMESE PLAYER TO ENTER THE
FINALS OF A LEAGUE OF LEGENDS WORLD CHAMPI-
ONSHIP
League of Legends (League of Legends) is a monumental
title of the eSports industry with more than 10 years of
operation. The number of players and viewers has been
at the forefront for many years and is the birthplace of
famous players that go beyond eSports border. There-
fore, the annual Final World Championship is always one
of the most-watched events globally.
Technically speaking, 5G is more superior in every as-
pects when it comes to connection.
As for eSports, 5G can increase Internet speed and mini-
mize delay, which is an essential feature while playing or
watching eSports.
At World Championship 2020, Vietnamese teams were
unable to attend the tournament due to the complicated
Covid-19 pandemic. However, a Vietnamese player whose
name is SofM, was lucky and proud enough to attend.
SofM and his team not only participated there, but also
demonstrated an impressive performance and made it to
the final, which made SofM – Le Quang Duy, became the
first Vietnamese player to achieve runners-up at League
of Legends world championship. However, this is not
all about his achievement, but also about his talented
Final match:
- 3,800,000 CCV
- 14,000,000 watch hours
- 668,000 CCV on Youtube Vietnam
- Ranked #1 worldwide on viewership
gameplay strategies. As a result, SofM has captured many
audiences’ hearts, as well as has drawn more attention
from the global eSports community, which made him
himself and League of Legends Vietnam become more
recognizable.
SofM – LE QUANG DUY
Team: Sunning
The only Vietnamese player at the World Championship 2020.
- The first Vietnamese entered the final of a League of Legends tourna-
ment
- Named as the No. 1 prodigy of League of Legends when holding the
top 1 Vietnamese server for many seasons and owning many Challenger
Tier accounts.
- He got into the top 10 challengers of Korean server with more than 100
pings, the result that no one could ever reach around the world.
- The first Vietnamese League of Legends player who went abroad to
compete in a world-leading professional environment as LPL
- The highest championship of Chinese League of Legends.
Source: Facebook SofM

f) VIETNAM OFFICIALLY PUTS ESPORTS IN SEA GAMES 31
In November 2020, eSports was announced by host country
Vietnam and the Southeast Asian Games Federation Council,
to become one of the forty official games at the 31st
Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. Thanks to the gradual
professionalization of the eSports industry, as well as
the achievements of Vietnamese players at regional and
international tournaments, the presence of eSports at
SEA Games has become an affirmation that Vietnamese
eSports is ready to compete internationally. Additionally,
this presence at a major regional gaming event also plays
an important role in the development of the eSports
industry in a developing market like Vietnam.
The social perception of eSports
Nowadays, for many reasons, eSports has not been fully
recognized from society, especially the middle-aged
generation. Nevertheless, being put into the official
competition at the 31st SEA Games may be the first
brick to gradually change the perception of eSports in
Vietnam. SEA Games 31 is a long-standing sporting event
in Southeast Asia in general and in Vietnam in particular.
It is a sports event in the Olympic system welcomed and
followed by many sports lovers. Therefore, appearing in
the list of medal competitions at the SEA Games will be a
golden opportunity for the esports industry of Vietnam
as well as Southeast Asia to demonstrate and realize the
creation of a development ecosystem, professional and
sustainable, affirming equal position as other sports in
the whole recreational life and socio-economic development.
Setting goals and inspiring to the younger generation
Watching eSports and favorite players compete for
national pride in a big sporting event is a clear evidence
for the success of the eSports athlete’s career. Many
experts commented that eSports skill in Vietnam is not
inferior to any other country, however, professionalism
and serious orientation about eSports career is lacking.
Seeing Vietnamese players succeed in their career paths
will motivate young people to have a passion for eSports
in Vietnam nowadays.
Vietnamese representative competes in eSports at SEA GAMES 30 (Source: VTV)
35

B. ESPORTS ECOSYSTEM IN VIETNAM
The publisher is a core element in the eSports industry. They are the units that directly buy the copyrights of the
competition to distribute in the Vietnamese market. In addition, community activities or professional and large-scale
tournaments also need the resources as well as investment, management of publishers.
At present, the eSports game distribution market in Vietnam is a 2-man race of VNG and Garena. The competition will
last longer and contribute to enhance the development of Vietnam’s eSports industry.
GARENA
Operating in Vietnam since 2009 with the beginning as a platform which connect players to Garena Plus. In 2012, Garena brought
League of Legends to Vietnamese gamers through the name Lien Minh Huyen Thoai (LMHT) and achieved great success with this
game. Along with that, series Fifa Online 3 & 4, Arena of Valor are also extremely famous in the eSports community.
Afteralongtime,Garenahasbuiltupitsecosystemwithmorethan30millionusersandaseriesofsocialmediachannelssuchasFacebook,
1. GAME PUBLISHER
Ecosystem of eSport in Vietnam
Interact with fans Broadcast via own
Sponsors
used by
MEDIA & NEWS VENUE
SPONSORS
ESPORTS ESPORTS
TOURNAMENT
ORGANIZERS
NEWS SITE CYBER
BRANDS & ADVERTISING AGENCY
PROFESSIONAL PLAYERS
STREAMER MANAGEMENT
ORGANIZERS
STREAMER STREAMING PLATFORM GAME
SEMI-PRO
LEAGUE
AGENCY
PROFESSIONAL
LEAGUE
PUBLISHER
STATISTICS STADIUM
Compete at
Manage and
promote
Managed by

Media channels Garena
Garena built a digital product ecosystem and integrated media channel network over the years. Thanks to the success of League
of Legends and recently Arena of Valor, Garena has strengthened its position as an eSports publisher in Vietnam for many years.
Tournaments, mainstream events organized by Garena also receive great communication efficiency because of its existing ecosystem.
Social media Youtube
Social media Facebook
News & content platform
Streaming platform Garena
Garena PC + Mobile
Garena Plus PC + Mobile In-game communication
Screen saver
Fanpage + Group
10,000,000 + followers
Garena Live In-game events
Desktop wallpaper
VEVT Youtube Channel
Website
30 million + users/month
4 million + users/month
27,000+ cyber bar
600,000+ client PCs at Vietnam
1,6M + followers
20M + website access/month
KÊNH MEDIA
Youtubewithmorethan15millionfollowersandcomputerroommanagementsoftwareGCafewithmorethan600,000workstations.
The digital content ecosystem of Garena
VNG
The forerunner of VNG is Vinagame - a pioneer in the Vietnamese game industry since 2003 with prominent MMORPG
games. Over 16 years of development, VNG is considered the largest entertainment group in Vietnam and recognized as
the only “unicorn” in the game industry in Vietnam with a value exceeding billions of dollars.
Since 2018, VNG has strongly promoted its activities in the field of eSports. VNG has a larger number and more
37

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2. ESPORTS GAMES IN VIETNAM
GENRES RELEASED DOMESTICALLY RELEASED GLOBALLY
MOBA
Battle Royale
Real Time
strategy
Fighting
Auto Battler
Sports Game
FPS
diverse game genres such as AutoChess, PUBG Mobile,
Call of Duty: Mobile (Battle Royale), Mobile Legends:
Bang Bang (MOBA) or CF Legends (FPS). The tournaments
with a large and professional scale.
Despite entering eSports later, VNG has experienced
quite soon in game and community since the era when
MMORPG was still popular. Consequently, it is not difficult
for VNG to adapt and organize professional tournaments.
Some typical tournaments can be mentioned as PUBG
Mobile Vietnam Championship or recently the national
championship Call of Duty Mobile was announced in
July 2020. Today, VNG’s main games are fairly new,
therefore, their tournaments do not have a loyal fan
base. However, the success of winning the copyright
to publish prevalent eSports, especially Wild Rift, has
shown that the determination and potential of VNG in
the eSports field is enormous and can compete directly
with Garena.

Watch via streaming
platform
Buy tickets
Financial
sponsorship
Brand promotion
SPONSOR ESPORTS TOURNAMENT
3. ESPORTS TOURNAMENT ECOSYSTEM
eSports games that aren’t released domestically are
somewhat at a disadvantage since there is no official
organization behind them, tournaments are still held
regularly but are mainly spontaneous and in community
size and they still have many limitations.
In contrast, the sports that are published officially receive
a considerable amount of investment from publishers
in community development and planning tournaments,
making them easy to attract an extensive number of
players and followers.
Sustainability and inheritance in eSports
The concept of MOBA, FPS or Strategy has been formed
since a long time ago. The well-known and well-received
games in the market at that time then ceased to hold
their position nowadays and were replaced by newer
eSports games.
On the contrary, eSports has changed diachronic in
accordance with the market but somehow the gameplay
of the same genre always has similarities. Therefore, the
next generation of eSports will always inherit players who
already have the skills, speciality of their predecessors. That
has contributed to the creation of a highly skilled eSports
community. League of Legends and Wild Rift are examples.
Although Wild Rift was just released in December 2020, it
immediately had a large and knowledgeable community of
players because they were League of Legends and Arena of
Valor players, who had already been familiar with MOBA
games from a long time ago.
Model of eSports tournament activities
Organization
Prize money
Compele
TOURNAMENT
ORGANIZER
AUDIENCE
ESPORTS TEAM
PUBLISHER
ONLINE
AUDIENCE
LIVE
AUDIENCE
ORGANIZING
AGENCY
CeSports tournaments in Vietnam are regularly held on the scale from semi-professional to professional tournaments which
are invested with a huge prize. In 2020, Arena of Valor “Arena of Glory (AOG) Winter 2020” is currently the tournament with
the highest money prize (2,5 billions VND). Vietnam has also held international tournaments such as MSI 2019, AWC 2019.
Major tournaments in the ranking system from the publisher can be organized by themselves or cooperate/authorized with
39

Types of tournaments sponsorship
- Overlay advertisements
- Branding content
- Set brand logo
- Sponsor gaming gear, drinks, PC components
- Merchandise & Đặt sản phẩm
a third organization, which is also a popular form of organ-
ization nowadays. In addition, there are also small-scale,
semi-professional and student movement tournaments
organized by event agencies like GTV, 23 Creative VN,
500Bros.
Unlike traditional sports, eSports tournaments are usually
held in a common gymnasium. This is to ensure fairness
and control technical problems or prevent cheating.
Tournaments always attract attention not only from offline
communities but also from online viewers through lives-
treams, so the opportunities for brands to promote are
huge.
The Sponsorship model of eSports tournaments is also
very similar to traditional sports because the sponsor’s
image can appear throughout the tournament so brands
can absolutely raise brand awareness among young people
(Gen Z and Millennials)
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7wURHivuVQuuucmpHko50nN92uZzaQg-EnDF0
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Product placement for “Sting” & Clear Men brand Logo at AOG Winter 2020
Source: Youtube VETV
ARENA OF GLORY VIEWERSHIP
SPRING 2019
37.5
MILLION VIEW
SPRING 2020
~83
MILLION VIEW
WINTER 2019
~56.7
MILLION VIEW
WINTER 2020
~90
MILLION VIEW

With 2 famous games and a large number of players, Arena of
Valor and League of Legends, the quantity of tournaments as
well as the prize pool of MOBA genre account for the largest
proportion in the industry. Although Battle Royal recently
appeared in Vietnam from 2017, it has rapidly occupied the
no 2 position thanks to the rise of PUBG, PUBG Mobile and
the latest Call of Duty Mobile, surpassing other long-standing
genres such as Real Time Strategy (RTS) or First-Person
Tournaments in Vietnam are also built with their own brands and have existed for a long time, and that is one of the
factors that confirms the tournament’s attraction to fans.
Shooter (FPS).
eSports tournaments also need KOLs, famous players
to generate interests and views. Like traditional sports,
the presence of strong teams and well-known players is
a factor that attracts the number of fans watching the
tournament, eSports organizers even rate the KOLs as
the most important factor of an eSports tournament to
receive attention from viewers and the media.
Overlay ads from CLEAR MEN at AOG Winter 2020
Source: Youtube VETV
“The Vietnamese eSports community is currently a young age community so they like to watch content like tourna-
ments because of KOLs, their idols. The customer base is too young to care too much about tactics or expertises.
KOLs are currently a factor that attracts views for tournaments, top players are the Idols that really have the abilities
to call to action the whole community and pull fans to watch events, tournaments with their presence.”
Mr Khong Quoc Hung, eSports manager at 23 Creative VN.
Question: In your opinion, what is the factor that creates the attraction for an eSports tournament
41

Several eSports tournaments in 2020(*):
(*) The data do not include non-VIRESA members.
TOURNAMENT TITLE GENRE PLATFORM PRIZE POOL
(VND)
TEAMS
ORGANIZER
PUBG MOBILE Pro
League Vietnarn S2.
Viettel 5G - Arena of
Glory Spring 2020
Arena of Survival
Spring - Free Fire
Arena of Survival
Winter - Free Fire
Fifa Online 4
Vietnam National
VCS Summer
VCS Spring
iESF
Arena of Survival
Summer - Free Fire
Free Fire Campus
2020 - Free Fire
CFVN
Championship 2020
Arena of Glory
Winter 2020
PUBG Mobile
Arena of Valor
Free Fire
Free Fire
Fifa Online 4
League of
Legends
League of
Legends
DOTA 2,
eFootball PES,
Tekken
Free Fire
Free Fire
Arena of Valor
Cross Fire
VNG
VEE
VEE
VEE
VEE
MOBA
MOBA
Box Gaming
VEE
VEE
VEE
VTC Online
Battle Royale
MOBA
Battle Royale
Battle Royale
Sport
Sport
Sport
MOBA, Sport,
Fighting
Battle Royale
Battle Royale
MOBA
FPS
Mobile
Mobile
Mobile
Mobile
PC
PC
PC
PC &
Console
Mobile
Mobile
Mobile
PC
64 teams -
384 players
160 teams
8 teams
18 teams
18 teams
4 teams
8 teams
8 teams
155 players
18 teams
12 teams
8 teams
1.569.000.000
2.290.000.000
1.000.000.000
2.000.000.000
200.000.000
1.225.000.000
1.225.000.000
103.000.000
1.500.000.000
138.000.000
2.900.000.000
285.000.000
Source: VIRESA

(*) Statistics are as of October 2020
TEAMS INFORMATION
4. PROFESSIONAL ELECTRONIC SPORTS TEAMS
eSports teams consist of professional players, a core
element in the eSports ecosystem in any country.
Organized as a business comprising managers, coaches,
players, administrative support unit and communication
department, the main teams are eSports influencers
attracting millions of fans following events or tournaments
that they participate in.
Currently, in terms of size, only a few top teams will be
built in the form of multi-title. Each team was formed
to correspond to different games. Some teams in this
form are GAM eSports, Team Flash, EVOS. Such teams
can easily attract massive sponsorships since they are
Followers: 290.000
Titles: LMHT, PUBG, EA Sport Fifa Series
Achievements: VCS Summer 2019 - Champion, GPL 2017 - Champion
GAM eSport
Team Flash
EVOS eSport
Heavy eSport
Saigon Buffalo
Followers: 222.000
Titles: Arena of Valor, LMHT, Free Fire, Fifa Online
Achievements: AWC 2019 - Champion, VCS Spring 2020 - Champion
Followers: 180.000
Titles: LMHT, Arena of Valor
Achievements: VCS Spring 2018 - Champion
Followers: 200.000
Titles: Free Fire, Arena of Valor
Achievements: VCS Spring 2018 - Champion
Followers: 160.000
Titles: LMHT
Achievements: VCS Spring 2019 - Champion, VCS Summer 2018 - Champion
Followers: 105.000
Titles: PUBG
Achievements: PUBG SEA Championship 2018 - Runner-up
Refund Gaming
popular in many different eSports titles, sponsors can
also depend on that to raise their brand awareness.
The second form is single-title, a team plays only
one game, most teams in Vietnam are building in this
form because of the lack of financial resources and big
investors so their brands popularity are still limited
unlike strong brands such as GAM eSports and Team
Flash.
Several eSports teams in Vietnam (*)
Followers: 80.000
Titles: LMHT, PUBG
Achievements: VCS Summer 2018 - Runner-up
Friends Forever
Gaming
43

TEAM INFORMATION
Followers: ~ 120,000
Titles: LMHT, PUBG Mobile, Arena of Valor, Free Fire
Achievements: VCSB 2020 – Runner-up, PMP 200,400 Champion
V Gaming
Saigon Phantom
Divine eSport
Box Gaming
Venus Gaming
496 Gaming
Followers: 63,000
Titles: Arena of Valor, PUBG
Achievements: DTDV 2017 - Runner-up
Followers: 37,000
Titles: PUBG
Achievements: PUBG SEA Championship - 3 times Champion
Followers: 31,000
Titles: PUBG Mobile
Achievements: PMPL Spring 2020 - Champion
Followers: 9,000
Titles: DOTA 2
Achievements: ESL Vietnam Championship SS1 &2 - Champion
JBO Vietnam Master League 2020 - Champion
Followers: 7,000
Titles: CF Legends
Achievements: The Legends 2017 - Champion
Followers: 18,000
Titles: LMHT, LQMB, PUBG
Followers: 25,000
Titles: PUBG
Followers: 10,000
Titles: DotA Warcraft, DOTA 2, LMHT
Rate Me Five Stars
StarBoba
Ahihi Legend

Followers: 3,200
Titles: CF Legends
Head Hunter
Rebellion Gaming
Meet Your Master
Followers: 2,000
Titles: CS:GO
Followers: 1,700
Titles: eFootbal PES
eSports earnings of Vietnam professional players (TOP 10): (*)
Sources: Esport Earnings
STT PLAYER ID PLAYER NAME TEAM TITLES
TOTAL
(USD)
1 XB Trần Xuân Bách Flash LQMB 178.302,51
3 ADC Trần Đức Chiến Flash LQMB 156,918.92
5 SofM Lê Quang Duy Sunning LMHT 133,601.15
7 Archie Trần Minh Nhựt GAM (Former) LMHT 73,904.58
9 Levis Nguyễn Hữu Đoàn Divine Esports PUBG 62,725.83
10 Optimus Trần Văn Cường GAM LMHT 61,073.53
2 ProE Trần Quang Hiệp Flash LQMB 167,135.99
4 Gau Phạm Hồng Quân Flash LQMB 156,808.34
6 Đạt Kòiiii Đinh Tiến Đạt Flash LQMB 122,860.21
8 Levi Đỗ Duy Khánh GAM LMHT 65,269
45

Revenue Resources of eSports teams:
17
https:/
/www.esportsearnings.com/countries/vn
Beside the revenue from tournament
prize money, popular teams also
attract sponsors large and small in
various forms such as advertising,
event KOLs, sponsorship or sales of
merchandise.
- Vietjet Air is the main sponsor of Team FLASH, and the logo appears on official jerseys & media publications.
- GIGABYTE sponsors GAM (Gigabyte Marines) and is associated with the brand name associated with the team.
Sources: congthuong.vn
TOURNAMENT
PRIZE MONEY
SPONSORSHIP
MERCHANDISE
STREAMING
ESPORTS
TEAMS

18
https:/
/congthuong.vn/vietjet-dong-hanh-cung-team-flash-tren-dau-truong-quoc-te-127666.html
Source: Gam.gg
The merchandise is sell on the team’s website
“In my view, the top 3 markets in Southeast Asia are Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam in terms of economic and
overall development in the esports sector. I think Vietnam has great potential to lead the Southeast Asian market
in the next 3 years if the esports continues to grow in an upward trend, especially with the SEA Games held in
Hanoi in 2021. In my opinion, two other interesting markets, the Philippines and Myanmar, are behind the top 3
but also have good growth.”
“As the leading eSports team in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, our business model is mainly around sponsorship/
branding campaigns, streaming, merchandise sales and bonuses. Our biggest source of revenue in 2019 is bonuses
as we are the first Vietnam esports World Champion at Arena of Valor/Lien Quan, but the content and streaming
business also helps us to have recurring revenue.”
“An eSports team in Vietnam will have the greatest potential in terms of media accessibility because the rate of
interaction and consumption of digital content here is truly extraordinary. The operating costs for an eSports
team in Vietnam have increased over time, but are nonetheless slightly lower than in other mature markets
like Indonesia and Thailand. I believe Vietnam has the strongest talent base out of the three countries, but the
commercial potential is a bit more limited as the market is still at the trigger stage.”
Mr. Terence Ting, CEO of Team Flash
Question: Can you compare the current situation of Vietnam’s gaming industry scene with others in
Southeast Asia.
Câu hỏi: Anh có thể so sánh tình hình thị trường eSports Việt Nam hiện nay với các thị trường khác trong
khu vực Đông Nam Á?
Question: What are the main sources of Team Flash income for 2019? Which is the main source of revenue?
Question: Can you compare the potential of establishing and developing a professional eSports team in
Vietnam with other countries where Flash team operates?
47

5. ESPORTS TOURNAMENT ORGANIZER
Game publishers in Vietnam own the copyright for game content, but they are not completely independent to organize
events and tournaments with only internal resources. In addition, games released globally such as DOTA 2 or PUBG
do not have an official publisher in Vietnam, so the eSports event organizers (agencies) will be service providers, home
support publishing makes tournaments with large scale and professionalism.
Several organizer of eSports tournaments (*)
The main job of eSports Agencies is to organize, operate and communicate for eSports tournaments co-operated or not
with publishers.
Main job categories of an eSports agency:
Tournament content building
Tournament timeline building
Categories detailing
Communication planning
Synthesize the results
Media production
post-tournament
Material production
Communication
post-tournament
Venue management
Livestream operating
Offline operation (event,
referee work,
Commentator script,
Caster)
Media asset production
Communication material
production
(*) Figures are as of October 2020
https:/
/escharts.com/organizers
Source: Eschart
AGENCY FEATURED TOURNAMENT IN 2020
PUBG Vietnam Series 2020
Prize: 17,000
Format: Online
Valorant: Vietnam Pro Teams Showmatch
Prize: 650
Format: Online
SEA DOTA 2 Vietnam Qualifier
Prize: N/A
Format: Online
CS:GO: Vietnam Pro Leagues
Prize: 1,300
Format: Online
500Bros Studio
VPT Studio
23 Creative VN
eFire League
TOURNAMENT
PLANNING
PRE-PRODUCTION
ON-SET
OPERATION
POST-PRODUCTION

6. ESPORTS TOURNAMENT VENUE
In Vietnam, there are many popular eSports games, but not all of these have an official publisher in Vietnam, so
they also bring certain advantages and disadvantages for eSports tournament organizers. According to Khong Quoc
Hung, domestic publishers have advantages by owning game copyrights, so the legal procedures are simpler, but
foreign publishers are more experienced and have built up professional and advanced workflow.
In Vietnam, the venues for eSports tournaments are gaming centers or, on a larger scale, stadiums. These gaming
centers are essentially internet cafes, but are heavily invested in ground space, computer hardware as well as other
accompanying services. However, gaming centers are often chosen to host small and medium-sized tournaments.
Large events or international tournaments will be held at venues with larger capacity stadiums or sports halls for
fans to watch.
For example: AWC 2019 is held at Tien Son Sports Palace, Da Nang, MSI 2019 is held at the National Convention Center
or the VCS tournament system is held at GG Stadium ....
“When accepting a job as a tournament organizer, an agency will have 4 main work parts including (1) tourna-
ment planning, (2) pre-production, (3) On-set operation, (4) Post-production.
The pre-production stage for 23 Creative VN is the stage we consider the most important and always try to do
it methodically. While running the tournament, the livestream is also a very important thing and should avoid
making mistakes as much as possible because when the live stream is in real time, mistakes will appear on the
stream immediately.”
Mr. Khong Quoc Hung, eSports manager at 23 Creative VN.
“The local publishers already have the game copyrights and the government licensing procedures are simpler, so
agency units need to focus on production and operation to get the best quality. On the contrary, when organizing
tournaments for sports without a local publisher, the agency needs to discuss carefully about the organization
plan with the publisher because they cannot understand the Vietnamese eSports market with their competitors
native authors. However, most of the foreign partners have the advantage of experience, so their organization
process is very advanced”
Mr. Khong Quoc Hung, eSports manager at 23 Creative VN
Question: Can you describe the operation steps and the process of organizing a professional eSports tour-
nament in Vietnam and which stage do you think is the most important step in the process?
Question: What are the differences when an agency works with foreign and local partners?
49

Some famous competition venues:
Viking eSports Arena has an area of up to 1500m2, built with many different areas based
on devices such as PC area, console area or even a separate mobile game area.
GG Stadium is the only stadium owned by Riot Games in Vietnam and one of Riot’s big-
gest studios. GG Stadium is used to host League Of Legends events organized by Garena.
MSI 2019 in Vietnam was also held here.
Chain stores with 3 branches in Ho Chi Minh City with a design of internet cafe model
with a very high configuration investment system can even livestream.
Venus Gaming Center is a gaming center in Hue located in the middle part of Vietnam.
This is a small machine room with only about 80 machines, but it is considered suitable
for the market in Hue City.
Established in 2015, Pegasus is a famous gaming center in Hanoi. With high-configu-
ration equipment and separate entertainment, catering and competition areas, this is
often the place chosen to host eSports tournaments in Hanoi.
Viking eSport Arena
GG Stadium
Kingdom NextGen
Venus Gaming Center
Pegasus HN
“Becoming a venue for eSports tournaments brings a lot of benefits to cybers in general and Vikings in particular:
Vikings has had a development orientation in parallel with eSports, not only in the Cyber business but also in
a professional team. With this orientation, Vikings Cyber will have a more stable and loyal customer base who
loves eSports. In addition, when large-scale eSports tournaments are held here, our image will be promoted to
our fans, and the teams themselves can choose Viking as the place to practice. All of these things bring benefits
to Vikings himself and for the eSports industry in today’s society.”
“Any big eSports player or team needs a starting point, Viking Cyber regularly organizes eSports tournaments
at the semi-professional level and it’s a suitable environment for eSports talent to be able to start. We consider
ourselves a cradle to nurture and develop young talents from the very first step, providing an environment to
exchange and compete in eSports for anyone who has passion and enthusiasm.”
Mr. Vu Quoc Hoan - CEO of Viking Gaming
Question: As a large Cyber system and always supporting eSports in tournaments and events, what benefits
does eSports bring to Viking Cyber in the past time?
Question: In your opinion, what roles are the Cyber systems in general and Viking Cyber playing in the
development of the eSports industry in Vietnam today?

7. STREAMERS AND MANAGEMENT UNITS
a, Streamer
Streamers, also known as creators, are influential
individuals on social networks, especially with
streams of typical game content and eSports. The
professional players on the teams also see streaming
as a piece of work for fan interaction and image building.
The streamers attract viewers with factors such as
skill level, humor factor, ability to talk, and audience
interaction.
CHANNEL/
STREAMER
STATISTICS
STREAM
CONTENT
STREAM
PLATFORM
Youtube: 9M Subscribers
Facebook Page: 965,000
Facebook: 1.3M Followers
Youtube: 4.7M Subscribers
Facebook Page: 3.9M Followers
Facebook: 1.3M Followers
Facebook: 700,000M Followers
Facebook Page: 4.1M Subscribers
Facebook: 800,000 Followers
Game
eSports
Game
eSports
eSports
eSports
eSports
eSports
Youtube
Youtube
Nimo TV
Facebook
Youtube
Facebook
Facebook
Facebook
CrisDevilGamer
Độ Mixi
MisThy
VirusS
PewPew
Linh Ngọc Đàm
Like an industry KOLs, streamers also have sponsorships
and advertising contracts when their channel gets a lot
of views and followers. The streamers themselves also
build their personal image in the public eye to become
influencers. They are the factor that attracts the
attention of the community and the media at events
and programs with a large fan base.
Statistics of some famous streamer in Vietnam(*)
51

CHANNEL/
STREAMER
STATISTICS
STREAM
CONTENT
STREAM
PLATFORM
Youtube: 780,000M Subscribers
Youtube: 924,000M Subscribers
Facebook Page: 636,000M Followers
Facebook Page: 446,000 Followers
eSports
eSports
eSports
eSports
eSports
eSports
eSports
Facebook
Youtube
Youtube
Facebook
Facebook
Facebook
Facebook
Nam Blue
Xemesis
Chim Sẻ Đi Nắng
Uyên Pu
Ba Rọi Béo
NoWay
Flash.XB

CHANNEL/
STREAMER
STATISTICS
STREAM
CONTENT
STREAM
PLATFORM
Youtube: 556,000 Subscribers
eSports
eSports
eSports
eSports
eSports
eSports
eSports
Facebook
Facebook
Facebook
Facebook
Facebook
Facebook
Youtube
ProE
Gau
Lai Bâng
ADC
Đạt Kòiii
Levi
Optimus
Source: Facebook & Youtube
53

What is the formula for success when it comes to public interest toward creators?
Popular donation platforms in Vietnam
b, Streaming income sources
Most streamers build the reputation of a KOL/Influencer, therefore, the income sources from branding can vary
depending on their field. However, some primar streaming income sources are:
- Regular income from streaming platforms
- Advertising and brand promotions
- Donations and subscriptions
c, Streamer managing agencies
The success of a streamer relies on a managing agency. OTA Network, Creatory, Box Studio are notable companies,
whose job is to foster and advertise streamers’ image and manage their activities.
Some forms of stream sponsorship
PRODUCT PLACEMENT
LOGO PLACEMENT
OVERLAY ADVERTISEMENTS
WORD-OF-MOUTH MARKETING
“The most important thing is content. Different games have different fan bases. Therefore, content creators need to
have a grasp of their targeted audience in order to deliver their content effectively. ESports streamers need to be able
to communicate the highs and lows of the game, which is what keeps the viewers coming back for more. Additionally,
the creator’s key visuals (overlay, donation pop-up, slogan,...), interactions,... are also crucial elements.”
“The real formula here is “no formula” as each content creator is unique, so there is no correct path to success.
However, there are some fundamental elements they should pay attention to in order to attract viewership:
Sincerity: In the core of the streamer-viewers relationship is sincerity. Staying true to yourself online and offline can
help build a more intimate image and reap values greater than financial benefits.
Passion: A streamer who isn’t passionate doesn’t attract viewership and can’t build a loyal fanbase.
Personality: To stand out among the large number of streamers, an individual needs to show uniqueness to attract fans.
Being unique and making a strong impression among viewers opens up PR opportunities.”
Mr Pham Ba Duy, Director of OTA Network
Question: What does it take from an eSports streamer to attract viewership?

8. ESPORTS PRODUCTION AND BROADCASTING
ESports tournaments can be streamed for free and broadcasting profit comes from sponsorship and advertising.
Broadcasting rights: owned by tournament organizer or publisher.
International publishers: Depending on the publisher’s policy, their game can be featured in a tournament for free.
Domestic publishers: VNG, Garena: broadcasting rights belong to publishers.
Popular streaming platforms in Vietnam
Streaming and broadcasting platforms play a crucial part in distributing eSports contents, especially tournaments, and
boosting content creation in Vietnam. While Facebook Gaming and Youtube already have their streaming feature with
a huge number of users, Nimo is more gaming-content-oriented. With a free-to-watch model, Vietnamese eSports
viewership is growing steadily.
Aside from streaming platforms, some major tournaments even receive coverage on VTVcab, HTV, VTC,...
In addition, a number of eSports-themed programs are on-air:
- The program “Toan canh the thao dien tu”, aired every Tuesday on VTVcab’s channel, The thao TV.
- Some tournaments receive coverage on VTV, The thao TV and The thao tin tuc HD by VTVcab, QPVN, HTV The thao...
Source: Gamek.vn
The program ”Toan canh the thao dien tu”
ESports news pages and social media(*)
VTV Live và VTV Cab ON
55

Other news media:
19
gamek.vn/esport/vtvplay-chinh-thuc-thong-bao-ve-viec-phat-song-giai-dau-dota-2-tai-viet-nam-20160303113516832.chn
(*)Statistics up to 10/2020
Source: Facebook & Youtube
Average monthly site visits: 8,42 million
Fanpage: 1.4 million followers
VTV Live’s eSports TV
Fanpage: 391.000 followers
Average monthly site visits: 937.000
Multichannel network.
Youtube: 16.200 subscribers

(*)Statistics up to 10/2020
Nguồn: Facebook Cao Thủ Liên Quân
9. SPONSORSHIP
With their young and passionate fan base,
eSports events open up great PR and
advertising opportunities for brands. The
AIC 2020 (Arena of Valor) even reached
109 million views on Youtube, twice the
number in 2019. Concurrent even viewers
reached 631.029.
57

Just like traditional sports, brands can be a sponsor in many different forms such as sponsoring an eSports team,
sponsoring tournaments or sponsoring events hosted by game publishers. Sponsor can be divided into two category
according to international terminology: endemic and non-endemic.
Endemic brands are brands that have business products directly correlates to eSports such as PC components, gaming gear,
gaming smartphone, Internet. In Viet Nam, brands that have operated as eSports sponsors can be mentioned as follows: Dell,
Asus ROG, Logitech, Phong Vu, Oppo,Viettel
Endemic sponsor
Viettel 5G - Arena of Glory Spring 2020
Sponsor: Viettel Telecom
ROG Master
Sponsor: ASUS & Intel
IESF World Championship 2020
Sponsor: Razer
Logitech Play At Home
Sponsor: Logitech, Acer, Samsung, An Phát v.v...
Image source: Lienquan.garena.vn, asus.com.vn, predator-league.com, news.gearvn.com

Viettel, ClearMen, YoMost, Pepsico Việt Nam - brands that have indirect correlation to eSports businesses, they chose to
sponsored because eSports enthusiasts are similar to the targeted clients of the brand.
Examples of a typical sponsor:
Non-endemic sponsor
Arena of Glory Spring 2020
Sponsor: Clear Men (Unilever Viet Nam corporation)
VCS Spring 2019
Sponsor: Clear Men (Unilever Viet Nam corporation)
Arena of Glory Winter 2020
Sponsor: Sting (Suntory Pepsico Viet Nam corporation)
VCS Summer 2019
Sponsor: Coca Cola (Coca Cola Viet Nam corporation)
Image source: lienquan.garena.vn, lienminh.garena.vn
59

“Viettel has always evaluate eSports as a potential market filled with enthusiasm, youth and creativity. Those values
coincide with Viettel’s branding orientation and because of that we believe Viettel and eSports synergy can bring
many additional values to each other.”
Question: Please tell me why Viettel has decided to choose eSports to participate as a sponsor?
“Take Viettel 5G - Arena of Glory Spring Season for example, Arena of Valor is essentially a mobile therefore very
suitable for our mobile digital businesses. Moreover, the name Viettel 5G says it all, Viettel always wanted to bring
mobile entertainment experiences with the highest speed so the fact that we are accompanying with eSports
could affirm the value that Viettel brings, that is the ability to bring the most optimal online entertainment
experiences and qualities.”
“There are many aspects that need to be considered, but for Viettel, several significant factors can be mentioned as
follows :
First, the objective of the tournaments: Tournaments always have business goals and commited certain KPIs such as
ticket sales, sales, coverage and coversion rates. A tournament has objectives suitable with Viettel’s business purposes
will be the prime aspect when we choose.
Secondly, the ability to organize tournaments of the partnering unit: When business goals are set, it will be meaningless if
we can’t execute it. Therefore the ability assessment of Viettel’s partnering agency is the second - most important. Agencies
need procedures, a consistent working formula to convince customers about the ability to ensure the KPI that has been set
out.
Thirdly is the presence of influencers in tournaments such as players, famous eSports teams, commentators or casters.
Influencers have huge fan base and can drive tournaments traffic with just their fan base. However, we are also
consider choosing influencers with actual talents and has great influence on the public to collaborate and accompany.”
Mr. Vo Thanh Hai, President of Viettel Media, Military Telecommunications Industry Group ( Viettel
Question: What is the goal for Viettel’s campaign when sponsoring for an eSports tournament?
Question: So what are the aspects of an eSports tournament that Viettel take into consideration when
making the decision to sponsor?

A. ESPORTS ACCOMPANYING
WITH NATIONAL DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
1. THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION NUDGE IN
INTERNATIONAL SPORTS OF 2020
On August 2020, Tour de France organizers have to
deal with an unprecedented problem, the world’s most
renowned cycling tournament went on a 2 month
delay because of the Covid-19 pandemic. To solve
this problem, the organizer has worked with a bike
racing game company called Swift to create Virtual
Tour de France, a virtual tournament, professional
cyclists compete with each other, riding on fixed
bicycles equipped with achievement measurement
technology and surf the well-known road of Tour de
France. World Sports 2020 has began just like that, a
prosperous age of digital transformation activities in
sports has actually started.
Conceptually, Digital Sport is the act of digitalizing tra-
ditional sports content. The process of digitalize includes
digitalizing datas and process relating to broadcast con-
tent, digital specifications, sports simulation activities.
On the other hand, Sport Digital Transformation is more
of a long-term process, including multiple digitalized
projects, multiple technology integration, participation
and acknowledgement from leaders to executioners.
The goal of digital transformation in sports is create new
models, values and experiences .
Back to the circumstance of the sports industry in the
world in 2020, Covid has made global sports revenue
dropped down at 73 billion compared to its original plan
of 135 billion. A series of huge sporting events had to be
cancelled or stay undated like Tokyo Olympic Games
2020, along with that is a decline in sports revenues such
as event ticker sales, betting, souvenirs and tourism...
Sports entrepreneurs had to quickly operate in another
way, and the process of digital transformation in sports
is faster than ever. In reality, it was not entirely due to
the Covid pandemic, this transition trend has taken
place strongly in the past 5 years. According to ESPN’s
research, since 2016, NFL ticket sales has started to
decline, instead spectators enjoy watching NFL matches
in a completely new methods and Covid-19 is really a big
nudge for this transition.
Source: WPP
Global Sports Revenue of 2020
2019
0
20 billion USD
40 billion USD
60 billion USD
80 billion USD
100 billion USD
120 billion USD
140 billion USD
2020F
(Pre-Covid)
2020
(Post-Covid)
20
https:/
/www.wpp.com/wpp-iq/why-covid-19-will-usher-in-a-new-world-order-in-sport
63

2. DIGITAL SPORTS, THE FIRST STEPS OF DIGITAL
3. DIGITAL SPORTS ENHANCE THE INTERACTIVE
EXPERIENCES WITH FANS
Covid-19 pandemic has cause many troubles for traditional
sports. However, the need of physical activities are increasing,
with the hope of improving health, the immune system to cope
with the diseases. .Therefore, numerous home workouts, or
trainings,competingonvirtual,simulateddeviceshastrulypaid
off. Because players don’t have to go to training courts, they
still managed to practice and compete in tournaments through
electronic devices with relatively high accuracy without the
need of seeing people.
Not just in the world, right here in Viet Nam, in April 2020,
a “virtual” cycling tournament has taken place succesfully
in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to
participate in the virtual tournament, players need to
have specialized bikes that have bluetooth connections to
connect with smart electronic devices and install the app
ZWIFT on your phone or computer. All of the athlete’s stats
like speed, strategy, etc… will be recorded and simulated
on the screen through a simulator management software.
Besides that, multiple “virtual” running tournaments have
Take the NBA for example, a tournament that sticks
in history with fans and always tries to create an
unforgettable experience for fans in the arenas. This
organization has worked with Microsoft to create
a digital system for the fans on big screens around
the stadium for them to watch and interactive with
the match. They have also install new cameras at the
same height as the players, bringing a new vision to
the game closer and closer to them. In the future, that
could bring better user experience for the people at
home who wants to watch a real basketball match at
the comfort of their own house. Since these days,
everyone just want to stay home and watch sports
on their TV. In reality, spectating a match in a
taken place with large number of participants. “Brave Đà
Nẵng” virtual tournament has over 3.400 athlete running
across the roads to encourage the frontline pandemic forces,
at the same time uphold the spirit of sport practicing in the
community. The race recorded over 900 athletes completed
the set goals. “Green hope” running tournament has also
attracted over 2000 athletes registering to run unlimited
accumulation of 10km, 20km, 50km, etc… and then use a
“smart watch” to connect with the application platform of the
tournament. After the tournament ends, upon finishing the
race, athletes will receive electronic certificates, electronic
medals according to each distance. Furthermore, technological
devices like PlayStation also has interactive handheld devices,
simulate with top-notch precision, everyone could participate
in practicing, competing in sports such as gold, tennis, etc...
stadium doesn’t resemble most of the authentic
sports consumer. For example, in the USA, according
to USC Annenberg’s research in 2016, 64% of the fans
live far away from their favorite team. Because of that,
digital solutions is the future of the department and
COVID-19 can’t stop the transformation. OTT (Over
the Top) platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, NBA TV, NBS
Sports is booming with the ability to provide users a
wide variety of cumstomizable content that they can
easily purchase.
Digitalized sports has also create a new form of
communication and connect fans with their favourite
sports. In the social-distancing period, Adidas has
created a “at home challenge”, where people could use

their training application freely and train like Adidas’ athleteS in the lockdown period. The same idea applies with
Nike for Living Room Cup, where fans can learn how to get a six pack just like Cristiano.
Source: Adidas.com
“Train like an athlete” campaign of Adidas
4. DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN SPORTS AND ITS
ROLE TO BOOST ESPORTS IN VIET NAM
In the world, in some countries, eSports is a huge industry,
with total worldwide revenue of 1 billion USD. However, in
Viet Nam, eSports is only at a potential level, not diversifying
the sources of income, small and spontaneous development.
According to some expers, eSports and digital sports
need to go along with each other, being a part of the
digital transformation in sports to improve, enhance
physical strength, mentality and stature of the
Vietnamese people as well as building a sustainable
sports economy.
This show a long-term strategy which includes management
responsibilities from the Govenrment, businesses, suppliers
and all related parties.
Digital transformation has gradually been applied in a
number of sports in terms of competition equipment,
management technology, operating procedures, training
instructions… Since then, traditional sports will have
transformations, in addition to new technologies like
emulation, 1:1 simulation, parallelism, interaction with
new 4G and connected 5G technical infrastructure will
create new environments.
65

B. THE IMPACTS OF COVID-19 TO
THE ESPORTS INDUSTRY
COVID-19 exploded in 2020 caused a lot consequences and
changing completely the way the eSports industry operates
and causes many difficulties for domestic enterprises.
However, contradicting to traditional sports, eSports still
exists. Thanks to the online operating system, players only
need to use a connected device such as a smartphone, PC or
console with an Internet connection, eSports will continue
to take place in 2020, although there are many changes and
limitations.
Events and tournaments swith to online formats
In 2020, COVID-19 has made eSports tournaments moved
to an online format or even worse, cancelled like the AWC
2020 (Arena of Valor) or Vietnamese representatives can
not participate in the World Finals (League of Legends)
because of COVID-19. Even though tournaments carried
on but happening online prove to be troublesome in the
operation as well as causing a significant loss in revenue
to the eSports industry as a whole.
eSports is a competitive sports, there for applause from
fans is one of the factors that creates wild atmosphere and
help teams dedicate themself to play. Moreover, activities
like music, entertainment or souvenirs are gone, causing
revenue from tournaments to decline.
Sponsors are worrying about the effectiveness when
sponsoring because if tournaments takes place without
fans, they will not be able to appear next to them and teams
will not able to make a strong impression. ASUS ROG brand,
a big sponsor, have sponsored numerous tournaments
as well as Viet Nam’s eSports teams believe that eSports
events without fans was a loss of opportunities for sponsors
to introduce products and for customers to interact and
experience the product directly. However, sponsors
still believe that communication efficiency and brand
awareness are still very potential when the number
of eSports viewers watching through livestream
tends to increase strongly during the pandemic.
COVID-19 opens up new opportunities
While other traditional sports stay frozen, eSports con-
tinues to thrive. This adaptation of eSports as well as the
online operation feature has helped eSports to be highly
appreciated by investors and the world. In particular,
the rate of interaction and views of eSports content
increased strongly during the epidemic.
Source: Adsota
The interaction growth on Facebook Gaming
during the COVID-19 pandemic in Viet Nam
Total view
reach
Interaction
81.37%
79.6%
50%
21
https:/
/www.slideshare.net/AdsotaAds/covid19-crisis-impact-and-recovery?ref=https:/
/blog.adsota.com/

“Because of the 2020 covid 19 pandemic, eSports has seen a significant spike in viewership. All of the tourney
method has been transferred from the traditional offline to an online platform, which favors us because the
amount of workload has been reduced significantly. Thus, the overall number and the frequency of tourneys,
especially online tourneys have also experienced a considerable growth. If we compared the ratio between the
year 2020 online and offline tournaments to the previous years, the number shifted from 60:40 to 70:30.
“Yes, the sponsors have seen many negative outcomes because of the pandemic. However, their demand for marketing
still remains high, especially in the time when viewership and popularity of eSports spikes. Because of this, 500bros
shifted their campaign from selling merchandise and activation marketing methods, … to increasing the viewership,
coverage and the conversion rate. With this approach, brands can still be benefited when sponsored for eSports
tournaments.”
Mr. Vu Quoc Hoan, Founder and Director of 500Bros Studio.
“The covid 19 pandemic has both Negative and Positive effects on the global eSports market. Although offline
events and tournaments have been canceled, the overall demand for multimedia and digital consumption is still
increasing. Thus, leads to an overall demand increase in every market. Because of this, brands are focusing their
funds on digital platforms. To thrive, the eSports sector must adapt to this scenario and find a new way to earn
profit.”
Mr. Terence Ting, CEO of Team Flash.
Question: How does the covid 19 pandemic of 2020 affect 500bros in matchmaking action?
Question: In your opinion, the covid 19 pandemic brings challenges to the overall development of
Vietnam eSports or is it the chance for this sector to thrive.
Question: Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, audiences stop going to offline tourneys and instead watch livestream from home.
This has also affected the sponsorships in many aways. The question is, how has 500bros adjusted to fit with the said scenario?
67

C. THE ROLES OF SPORTS
1. ESPORTS – A NEW ECONOMIC MODEL.
Contributing to the Vietnam eSports Ecosystem are numerous
Units, private companies, Enterprises who are working in
different Sectors, including the eSports sector. Similar to other
Economic Sectors, eSports sector income comes from 8 different
factors.
Technological equipment:
eSports have the features of online games, every person who
is involved in eSports needs specific types of equipment in
order to approach, take part in eSports. These equipment
includes PC/Laptops, gaming consoles or smartphones,
peripherals like computer mouses, keyboards, headphones,
Internet and 4G network. On average, each person needs to
invest approximately 250 USD/year for said equipments.
Ingame microtransaction:
eSports games are different compared to other genres like
(MMORPG). These types of games focus on the players’
skills and create an equal rivalry environment among
players. Because of this, revenue and players community
of eSports games may not be comparable to MMORPG
games on the first release dates. However, by focusing on
the players’ skills, eSports related games will have a much
longer life span. On average, 5-6% eSports players pay
10USD/month on ingame items.
Revenue from third-parties payment transactions:
Vietnamese consumers’ habits on games have now
become a norm and have now become more convenient
than ever. Compared to the past, payments using phone
cards have reduced significantly and have been replaced
by payments using bank accounts and e-wallet services.
Third-party payments have provided a more convenient
paying method for both game publishers and gamers.
AdvertisementandDonation:
One crucial aspect for every market are influencers. eSports
have a huge community of influencers who mostly are
streamers and content creators. They are celebrities with
millions of fans and followers. With huge fans and followers
follow these influencers. Furthermore, streaming platforms
will be benefited with the huge amount of traffic that these
content creators’ followers. This is a huge source of revenue
for themselves as well as streaming platforms like Youtube,
Facebook Gaming or NimoTV.
Sponsors’ revenue:
Events and Tourneys with professional players is a magnet
that attracts thousands of viewership. Because of this, big
brands were attracted to this specific sector. They sponsor
for tournaments and eSports events in exchange for more
brand recognition.
Revenue from selling event tickets and merchandise:
Before 2020, when tourneys and events mostly happen
offline, tickets and merchandise is a huge revenue
opportunity for companies. Professional eSports teams
and players sell their merchandise like t-shirts, gaming
gear,… to their fans.

2. THE STATE OF VIETNAM HR IN ESPORTS:
eSports has been a blooming business in Vietnam for the past five years and more and more companies, as well as
enterprises, are joining the ecosystem. However, because it is an industry with young age so there’s not really a clear
roadmap for human resources training methods. So the question here is, what is the reality of Vietnam HR in eSports?
“First and foremost I should talk about professional players, Vietnam eSports is the cradle of many talents in the
industry. It can be claimed that the level of native players is on par with international players. The evidence is that,
in the past, Vietnamese players and eSports teams have claimed significant achievement in global professional
tourneys. In 2019, we have Team Flash, who have claimed champions in the AOV World Championship, or in the last
year, Sofm became the Second-best player in the League of legends World Championship. However, both quality and
quantity players only concentrated in eSports games that are officially licensed in Vietnam. This is understandable
since these games have much more events and tournaments than other games which creates a rivalry environment
for players of those games.
Secondly, another worth noting job that has been blooming for the past 2 years is Streamers/Content Creators.
Unlike players, Streamers/Content Creators has been widely known in the society and is a high-pay salary job.
The quality and quantity of these content creators is increasing day by days and is famously known by their fans
and big brands. Some of the best Content Creators in Vietnam that have far exceeded popularity, those who have
reached outside the border of Vietnam are PewPew, Do Mixi and Viruss.
Besides, staffs who are responsibles for executing and organizing eSports events and tourneys have also become
professional in their own field and are very creative, on par with agencies in other developed countries. However,
Vietnam hasn’t had many chances to host Global-level eSports tournaments. This is worth mentioning and is crucial
because when there are participants of big eSports companies in Vietnam, the quality of expertise in organizing
tournaments must meet the highest standards with the opportunity to try and brush up on international standards.
MSI 2019 and AWC 2019 can set the first milestone to verify the tournament organizing ability of Vietnam eSports
enterprises and I believe that Vietnam will have more chances to establish more significant tournaments in the
future.”
Question: Can you give an overall evaluation about the current state of Vietnam HR in eSports?
“It is clear to see that the concept of eSports is still being misjudged by the society. Because of this, the lack of
professional eSport training centre as well as the lack of a professional developing method for the players is
unavoidable. That is why recruiting is having a lot of problems with supply and quality. In most cases, to meet
the demand for quantity, the HR department was forced to sacrifice the quality and that will lead to the decline in
output. In contrast, not all players with high-quality input have the right view about eSports, a sector in which is
too young compared to the traditional business sectors, whose occupations have been fully regulated.”
Question: What are the challenges in recruiting and developing human resources in the Vietnam
eSports sector?
69

VIETNAM ESPORTS WHITEBOOK 2021

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