The OCA that it has added eSports to the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Turkmenistan earlier this month, focusing on football and other sports-related games.

The OCA President, Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah, in a statement, said: "The Olympic Council of Asia has constantly been committed to the heritage, development and improvement of Asian sports, and we are extremely pleased about the strategic partnership with Alisports".

This is not Alibaba's first venture into esports, past year they formed the World Electronic Sports (WESG), investing as much as $ 150 million.

This is a major step toward Olympic consideration and comes a year after two organisations, the global eSports Federation (IESF) and worldwide eGames Committee (IEGC), submitted requests to the IOC for information on how esports could become an Olympic event. The video games that will feature in the Hangzhou Games have not been decided yet.

Esports is set to become a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

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A series of online qualification rounds in four e-sports will be held at national and then regional level by the six regions: West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, East Asia and Oceania.

E-sports to be contested at the fifth edition of the AIMAG, scheduled to take place from September 17 to 27, include Federation Internationale de Football Association 2017, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena and Real Time Attack. They then invested a further $14.5 million on the World Electronic Sports Games, which had a prize pool of $5.5 million. The only question left now is the kind of games the OCA plans in bringing to the 2022 Asian games.

The eSports industry has grown on a year-over-year basis and is estimated to be responsible for over $1 billion in revenue in 2017.

It seems like E-sports is moving forward in its appeal to be recognized as an official Olympic sport.

Last year, we reported that if Los Angeles were to win the 2026 Olympic bid, Esports would most definitely be included.