Jonathan Jansen: New Zealand Esports chief executive on inaugural Olympic Esports Games announced for Saudi Arabia next year

Preparations for the next Olympics are already underway, in the form of the inaugural Olympic Esports. 

The International Olympic Commitee has announced the competition will take place next year, with Saudi Arabia just named as hosts. 

It'll have gold medals just like Paris, but it will also have NZ$100 million worth of prize money. 

New Zealand Esports chief executive Jonathan Jansen joined Mike Hosking. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
To give you a sense, speaking of sport esports, how
big they are. The IOC Olympic Committee vote for Saudi
Arabia to host the first ever Esports Games next year.
Are they going to have medals? Yes, they're also going
to have one hundred million dollars in prize money. Now,
New Zealand Esports Chief Executive Jonathan Jensen is, well, it's
Jonathan morning.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah, well, could you put a team together to represent
New Zealand tomorrow with what you would think is a medal?
Chances are we any good?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Absolutely depends on the game, because remember that esports has
lots of different types of games and so we don't
know the exact details yet. Think of it a little
bit like athletics. We don't know if it's going to
be one hundred meter sprints or the high jump or
a long jump. But depending on the game that we're
and we've had great success before. We had a bronze
medal in twenty twenty two at the Global Games with
Reagan Kelly and Street Fighter, and so yeah, no, we're

(00:45):
absolutely in with a chance, especially because we've been in
the esports space for such a long time. We've been
doing a lot of good stuff that some other countries
aren't quite up to speed with yet.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Is that going to change the game? Because that was
my next question. What game would they use and how
would they decide what that is? And if it's a game,
when good on do you change the whole sport here
by everybody you know, tooling up on whatever the game
for the Olympics is, because it'll have to be the
same game, won't it.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, it's probably going to be, And that's why they've
got their own Olympic Esports games it is because it's
going to be you know, we don't know if it's
ten or fifteen different game titles in there. And so
that's a little bit of the world that we've always
lived in, is that we've always been prepared for. You know,
is there going to be a e football? Is there
going to be a street fighter? Is it going to
be a sim racing? And I think in this instance
we're guessing an educated guess would be that they'll have

(01:32):
almost all of them. There'll be a lot of different
things there, and so it's about sending a big wide
range of teams. We might have, you know, twenty athletes
going over there, to compete.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Do you call them athletes?

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Oh? Absolutely is esports.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
And I don't want to get into this, but I
have is an athletic pursuit per se. I'm not against
these sports. I'm just saying, is it an athletic pursuit?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Look, remember that gaming and esports is different. And if
you were if you just go to the beach with
some mates and you throw up all around, you wouldn't
call yourself in all black and jumping on the couch
and playing games isn't esports. But the competitive aspect of esports.
I think, you know, I could answer this question one
hundred different ways. I could tell you about how the
commitment and the discipline and the teamworkers exists. Or I

(02:18):
could tell you about, you know, at a top level,
all of the health sciences that go into being a
successful you know, esports player. But the Olympics they've got
We've got an Olympic esports games now, and so I
think that discussion is fairly close. Is it a sport
for everyone? No, but you know it's at the Olympics
now you win.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Good point. Jonathan Jensen, who's the New Zealand esports CEO,
with us this morning.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
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