Singapore's largest provider of online gaming entertainment, GigaMedia
Limited, has announced they have partnered with the World Mahjong Organization
to co-host the Mahjong World Championship for the next five years. GigaMedia,
who is a leading software developer for online games, including mahjong, says
they are "honored to be selected", and are looking forward to the Mahjong World
Championship becoming as large and popular as is the World Series of Poker
elsewhere in the world.
Chief Executive Office of GigaMedia, Arthur Wang, said that becoming a host
for the Mahjong World Championship is part of their strategic business plan to
introduce Mahjong - and consequently, online mahjong - to the rest of the world.
Mahjong is easily the most popular game in China and is deeply imbedded in the
Asian culture. Being a game of skill and luck, it is often played for fun;
However, gambling at mahjong is more popular than ever. Thanks to skill games
sites like GigaMedia's FunTown gaming portal, gambling revenues from online
mahjong have drastically increased in China.
GigaMedia evidently plans to spread the game throughout more of Southeast
Asia as well, which is one of the fastest growing online gaming sectors in the
world. GigaMedia recently invested $10 million in the Singapore based Infocomm
Asia Holdings, which is one of the fastest growing online gaming platforms in
the Southeast Asian market. Having already tapped the online mahjong industry in
China, GigaMedia will now bring their FunTown games to the 57 million internet
user's in Southeast Asia.
The World Mahjong Organization and GigaMedia will now begin to organize
several qualifying mahjong tournaments, both online and offline. They are
planning to do so in the largest gambling markets in the world, including
America, Canada, Europe and Asia. They will also start to market the televised
multi-million dollar event to corporate sponsors. Indeed, it seems Giga Media
and the World Mahjong Organization are on track to help bring the Mahjong World
Championship to scale with World Series of Poker.
