Nodwin’s BGMI Master Series to be streamed on Loco, Glance

The Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) Master Series esports tournament will be digitally streamed on Indian game streaming platform Loco, and InMobi’s lock screen infotainment service, Glance. Nodwin Gaming, the organizing body of the BGMI Master Series tournament, has announced an official partnership with Loco and Glance as its digital streaming partners – which will broadcast the three weeks-long tournament on television channel Star Sports 2 as well.

The BGMI Master Series will come with a prize pool of Rs 1.5 crore, with the winning team of the tournament slated to take home Rs 25 lakh in prize money.

The tournament is the latest among India’s growing esports championships – in a gaming market that is steadily growing. Last month, a Mint report detailed how game streaming platforms were seeing increasing commercial activity, signing bigger deals for gaming influencers on the platforms.

Services such as Rooter, which reported a monthly active user (MAU) base of 14 million users, and Loco with 5.3 million MAUs, have been signing up Indian professional esports teams to stream exclusively on their platforms. The latest of these deals ran into millions of dollars, and gaming tournaments are now getting similar prize pools as well.

The Battlegrounds Mobile India Series, held in January this year, offered a total prize pool of Rs 1 crore. The tournament was a precursor to the international PUBG Mobile Global Championship, and saw esports team Skylightz Gaming take the top prize to represent India in Krafton’s global gaming tournament.

The previous year’s PUBG Mobile India Series, which was organized prior to the game getting banned in India, came with a total prize pool of Rs 50 lakh – which at the time was the biggest professional gaming tournament in India.

Indian gaming tournaments are seeing an increasing audience for them being streamed. According to data from Statista, viewership for game streaming in India has increased steadily – and is set to grow further. While streaming of esports had over 9 million viewers in India in March 2019, the number had doubled to around 17 million viewers by March 2021. In the next four years, this viewership is expected to grow 5x – and reach 85 million.

In Nodwin’s latest deal for BGMI Master Series 2022, Loco will be the official streaming partner, while Glance will offer tournament information and promotions across over 160 million active phone lock screens in the country.