As popular football clubs and star players increasingly start to invest in esports, the industry is getting a lot of attention. Spanish football club Valencia has established their own LoL, Hearthstone, Rocket League, and FIFA series teams, while Paris Saint-Germain, FC Schalke 04, Fenerbahce and Beşiktaş of Turkey either founded their own teams or signed on previous organizations. Additionally, Brazil’s football icon Ronaldo has bought 50% of the shares of Brazilian gaming team CNB and FC Barcelona’s Neymar is also known to be keenly interested in esports investment.

The same can be said for Korea, where esports are gaining traction as attractive investments. The Korean football team, Seongnam FC, signed on FIFA Online 3 player, Jeongmin Kim, last year, followed by a slew of company endorsements like streaming platform AfreecaTV’s establishment of Afreeca Freecs, a fried chicken franchise, BBQ’s sponsorship of bbq Olivers, and the webtoon platform Battle Comics’ founding of a new LoL team.

One of the reasons for the Korean dominance in esports is the financial support from domestic corporations. SK telecom T1, which won its second consecutive championship at the 2017 Mid-Season Invitational in Brazil, is a prime example. From the early 2000s, SKT T1 started actively investing in esports and has become a pillar of Korean esports history since.

In April 2004, SK telecom bought 4U, the team with SlayerS_BoxeR, to establish SK telecom T1. For roughly 12 years of its history, SKT T1 has claimed championships from various tournaments and became a household name in the Korean esports scene. CEO of SK telecom at the time, Shinbae Kim, became the president of the International e-Sports Federation and laid the foundation for Korean esports, investing $1.7 million within a year.

As a result of these continued efforts, SKT T1 was able to ground itself as the best LoL pro team in the world by winning two consecutive LoL World Championships and winning two MSI championships two years in a row.

SKT T1 told Inven that, “This is the culmination of SK telecom’s continued esports investments for over 10 years.” He continued, “We plan to make T1’s name known throughout the world and foster the growth of the domestic esports scene by providing not only financial investments but also cultivating environments for solid teamwork and structured management of players and coaches.”