eSports and gaming tech company Emerge Gaming (ASX: EM1) has secured a Tier 1 ally by partnering with top African telecommunications company Mobile Telephone Networks (JSE: MTN) for the launch of a mobile gaming competition platform in South Africa.

The platform, to be branded MTN Arena, brings together MTN’s 29 million mobile subscribers in South Africa and Emerge Gaming’s expertise in online gaming and tournament platform technology. Across the African continent, MTN operates in 22 countries with more than 250 million total subscribers.

“After two years of nurturing our relationship with MTN, product planning and product development we are now the exclusive MTN Mobile esports provider. We are delighted to have partnered with one of the world’s leading mobile operators and I am incredibly enthusiastic about MTN Arena and the future opportunities of Emerge,” said Emerge Gaming CEO, Gregory Stevens.

“Leveraging MTN’s significant marketing support, we are fully funded to launch the product.

“COVID-19 has accelerated the interest in fresh and entertaining mobile gaming content with global lockdowns increasing mobile usage time and Emerge offers the ideal solution.”

Within the terms of agreement, Emerge Gaming has developed and will operate MTN Arena which will offer games that require no download and can be easily streamed to mobile devices. On the platform, users can enter tournaments with other gamers to win prizes and earn raffle tickets with the platform designed to increase ongoing engagement. 

To drive user adoption, MTN will help promote MTN Arena via SMS marketing to its South African subscribers, produce promotional material and offer click through traffic from other MTN portals for the first year of the 2-year agreement. 

In return, Emerge Gaming will receive a proportion of net revenue generated by the MTN Arena platform where MTN will bill a daily subscription fee against mobile user accounts when they subscribe to MTN Arena. 

To entice South African subscribers to pay approximately 26c per day to enter gaming competitions, MTN will offer prizes which will be distributed via MoMo, MTN’s groundbreaking Mobile Money service that lets users store, send and receive money using their mobile device. 

MTN is the largest mobile service operator in Africa and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange with a market cap around $8.4 billion. 

EM1 shares responded well to news of their new partnership with MTN, reaching a high of $0.0215 in morning trade, a rise of 26.4% on their previous $0.017 close.