Chinese social network and gaming giant Tencent has signed a partnership agreement with the Olympic Council of Asia to promote the development of esports in Asia.

The two parties inked the partnership agreement during the Asian Electronic Sports Development Conference this week which was held jointly by the OCA and the Asian Electronic Sports Federation.

Esports will be appearing in the OCA’s 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China from September 10-25, 2022 for the first time as an official sport after being a demonstration sport at the 18th Asian Games in Indonesia in 2018.

The organizing committee of Hanzhou will host eight esports titles for the event, including League of Legends, DOTA 2, FIFA Online 4, Hearthstone, Arena of Valor Asian Games Version, Dream Three Kingdoms 2, PUBG Mobile Asian Games Version and Street Fighter V.

Tencent has made heavy investment at many aspects of esports business, importing foreign online games titles to China, hosting gaming championship events and acquiring game streaming platform that broadcast the events.

Making heavy investments in game live-streaming and esports businesses would bolster Tencent’s revenue from games, such as its “League of Legends （LOL）”, because broadcasting LOL championship events generate high attention for its games.

Following the restructuring of its six-business group, Tencent has consolidated its three live streaming businesses, including its investees Huya, Douyu and self-owned eGame, into Tencent’s Interactive Entertainment Group (IEG) in September 2020. IEG primarily focus on business involves online gaming and e-sports, its is one of the most profitable group out of Tencent’s six business group.

Tencent’s strategy was to use these championship events to attract new audience and win over returning players, it has long considered esports and game live-stream as unifying tools for its social networking, gaming businesses.