From Policy to Platform: Why Esports Is Now National Infrastructure
- Gabriel Chan
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
By Sir Paul J. Foster, KStJH
President & CEO, Global Esports Federation
Founder & Executive Chairman, World Technology Group
Gaming and esports are no longer peripheral entertainment sectors. They are national capability platforms — activating youth at scale, accelerating digital skills, attracting foreign investment, and converting culture into GDP. The question for governments is no longer should we invest?, but how fast can we scale responsibly?
Sir Paul J. Foster joins global leaders to shape trusted, future-ready economic systems for gaming and esports.
This shift is not theoretical. It is already unfolding through large-scale platforms that bring together competition, governance, talent development, and international collaboration. Among them is the Global Esports Games, the flagship event of the Global Esports Federation. The Mumbai 2025 Global Esports Games World Finals arrives in Mumbai this month, marking a major milestone for one of the world’s fastest-growing digital economies, before building toward a highly anticipated Los Angeles 2026 Global Esports Games in December 2026.
More than a tournament, the Global Esports Games combine elite competition with GEFcon, where global thought leaders and policymakers convene, and GEFestival, where culture, arts, and entertainment take center stage, reflecting the full economic and cultural spectrum of the global esports ecosystem.
GEG is not simply a tournament. It is a live demonstration of how esports functions as economic, cultural, and diplomatic infrastructure. Bringing together national teams, athletes, publishers, policymakers, and industry leaders, GEG operates at the intersection of sport, technology, culture, and global trade. This convergence is precisely where next-generation economies are being built.
More than competition: the Global Esports Games combines elite play, policy dialogue, and cultural engagement at global scale.
At a time when virtual goods, cross-border payments, creator economies, and esports ecosystems are expanding faster than traditional policy frameworks can adapt, platforms like GEG offer governments something increasingly rare: a structured, trusted environment to engage with gaming at national scale. From payments and digital identity to talent pathways and international standards, esports exposes both the opportunity and the responsibility facing public and private leaders alike.
This responsibility is especially urgent as the global games industry enters a period of structural transformation. Record revenues sit alongside disruptive layoffs, escalating production costs, platform consolidation, and rapid shifts driven by AI and automation. Innovation is accelerating, but so are risks to talent protection, sustainability, and long-term resilience.
Esports reflects these tensions clearly — and that is why governance matters.
If esports is to serve as a driver of national competitiveness, it must adopt the same governance maturity as traditional sport. That means global standards, independent integrity systems, athlete protection frameworks, transparent data environments, and clear accountability across borders. Without trust, there is no sustainable market, only short-term extraction.
The Global Esports Games was designed with this reality in mind. They embed principles that future-ready economies must prioritize: inclusion, safety, sustainability, and interoperability. Inclusion ensures access for diverse talent pools. Safety protects youth and athletes in an always-on digital environment. Sustainability supports long-term careers, not just short-term hype. Interoperability enables cross-border participation, the lifeblood of any global digital economy.
India’s hosting of Mumbai 2025 Global Esports Games World Finals is particularly significant. With one of the world’s youngest populations and a rapidly expanding digital ecosystem, India represents the scale and ambition of the next era of esports and gaming-led growth. Mumbai will not only host competition – it will host dialogue, policy exchange, and global collaboration around how gaming can responsibly power economic development.
For governments, the lesson is clear. Gaming and esports cannot be governed in fragments — as culture in one silo, technology in another, and sport in a third. They must be approached as integrated systems that connect talent, infrastructure, trade, and trust.
Esports is not a future trend. It is a present reality. Platforms like the Global Esports Games show what is possible when governance, innovation, and ambition align. Nations that recognise this — and act decisively — will define the next generation of economic leadership.
I look forward to continuing this dialogue at the World Governments Summit 2026 in Dubai, from 3–5 February, alongside government leaders, regulators, and industry peers. As gaming and esports become central to national economic strategies, the task ahead is clear: to build systems that move at the speed of innovation, while anchoring growth in trust, protection, and long-term value creation.
