(Photo/Chinanews.com)

Local governments across China are rolling out favorable policies to support the e-sports industry as the electronic game market expands at an incredible speed.

China is expected to be home to 350 million gamers by the end of this year, with an anticipated market worth of 13.8 billion yuan ($2 billion).

Southern China’s Hainan province has set up a 1-billion yuan fund exclusively for the gaming industry to spur its development. The province also offers household registration and test-free college enrollment for elite gamers.

At the beginning of this month, Shanghai issued 20 items to consolidate its advantages in the e-sports industry, including improvement of the business environment and expansion of the industrial chain. The city is planning to build itself into an e-sports hub in the next three to five years.

Western China’s Xi'an has also released favorable policies for the industry, offering a subsidy that totals 3 billion yuan for e-sports enterprises that settle in the city.

BOCI Securities, one of the leading brokers in China, said that these favorable policies are expected to continue, which will bring more confidence to the future development of the industry and attract more talents and capital.

Insiders pointed out that the e-sports industry has preliminarily matured and formed a relatively complete industrial chain.

According to Penguin Intelligence, a think tank under Chinese internet-based technology enterprise Tencent, sponsorship, broadcasting rights and paid memberships made up 77.1 percent of the revenue of the gaming industry last year, while tickets to gaming events and derivative products accounted for 15.3 percent.

The number of viewers of top gaming events is way higher than that of traditional sporting activities, but sponsorship is worth less than a third. The commercial value of the industry still needs to be further explored.

A report by China’s Guotai Junan Securities indicated that China’s e-sports industry had entered a virtuous circle with more mobile games being developed. Moreover, the industry is also seeing more diversified sponsorship, professional events, and capitalized resources.