"Traditional sports aren't moving quickly enough”

Alibaba Cloud, the largest cloud computing company in the Asia Pacific, has just signed a multi-year deal to sponsor Games of the Future (GOTF). Recently, it also provided the cloud infrastructure for GOTF 2026 in Astana, supporting its digital platforms. From next year it will also manage the global distribution of media rights, allowing global broadcasters to access media assets securely during the tournament. We sat down with Dipesh Makwana, the head of business development (games, entertainment, media & sport) for Alibaba Cloud. He explained why the company is so keen to get involved with phygital and his hopes for the new partnership.

In this article

What the partnership deal will mean for both entities
How the landscape is expected to develop over the coming years
Why merging the physical and digital will be so important for all sports

Hi, Dipesh, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Why did Alibaba Cloud want to be part of the Games of the Future?

Quite simply, it’s the way forward. Esports are great, but we believe the future will actually be the mixing of the physical and digital worlds. That’s where we sit – in the digital world – but we’re also active in the physical world through sponsoring sports events. This merges both together. Plus, I think it’s a very important initiative, one that also focuses on player health.

Q: When did you first hear about the phygital? What was your first encounter with it?

I heard about it a year ago, before the Games of the Future in Abu Dhabi – probably six months before the event. I was looking into what was happening in the esports world and came across this thing called phygital. I did my own research and thought, “Wow, this is amazing – physical sports mixing with esports.” I looked into it further, attended the Abu Dhabi event, and that was incredible. That’s when I knew I wanted to be part of it. What makes Games of the Future the right platform is that it’s genuinely the convergence of the physical and digital worlds and we collaborate with physical sports entities, but also with esports entities. This merger of the two represents the best of both worlds for us.

Q: Your product is being used at these games – how does it actually show up behind the scenes? What’s happening that we can’t see?

Alibaba Cloud sits in the back end – you’d never really see it. We provide the cloud services, hosting all the data and everything created behind the scenes. The digital platform sits on Alibaba Cloud and, moving forward, we’re going to be adding AI to that as well, so we can monetize it and create a more immersive fan experience.

Q: What’s been the biggest technical challenge so far?

I’ll be a little arrogant and say there hasn’t been one yet. It’s still early days, and we’re here to help and support – we don’t foresee any technical challenges, but you never know. With live sports and events, there’s always something that can come up.

Q: This is a multi-year commitment?

Absolutely. At Alibaba, we only start sponsorships and deals like this for the long term – and it’s not just a commitment, it’s a partnership. That’s how we see it: a long-term partnership with Games of the Future and phygital.

Q: What could fans expect to see differently because of your partnership with Games of the Future?

What fans are going to see that’s a little different is the stats generated for players – moving from physical sports into digital sports – will be available for fans to see for themselves.

Q: You mentioned AI – what impact is that going to have? Is it a threat or an opportunity, and how would it work?

AI is definitely going to be an opportunity. I think the opportunity is in monetization and fan experience – being able to drive that experience and the immersiveness of phygital into fans’ homes, whether on a large screen or a second device.

Q: What does success look like for Alibaba from this partnership?

From a technical standpoint, success is zero failures, 100% of the time. We don’t talk about failures. But what we really want to see is viewership growth, and we want to achieve that alongside Phygital International and Games of the Future – just helping to grow the overall user base.

Q: How does this partnership fit into Alibaba’s bigger vision of where you’re going?

Currently we’re a partner with the Olympics and we’ve also just signed a deal with UEFA for European football, and this fits perfectly alongside that – moving further into the digital world, where we can engage with Gen Z and the younger fans who are drawn to phygital.

Q: When you talk about the Olympics and UEFA, do you see phygital sport developing into something bigger?

Oh 100%. Phygital is definitely going to grow – there’s no reason for it not to. I think bringing physical sports into the digital world is an opportunity in itself. Traditional sports aren’t moving quickly enough, but this is very dynamic – it engages fans, and it hits all the key points. It’s absolutely going to grow.