President Fraccari attends inaugural IOC Esports Commission meeting at Olympic House

The WBSC President joined fellow members for the first meeting following the announcement of the new Esports Commission by the IOC in September

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<p>The World Baseball Softball Confederation

(WBSC) President Riccardo Fraccari attended the first ever meeting of the

International Olympic Committee’s Esports Commission on Wednesday.</p>

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<p>President Fraccari was chosen to sit on the

commission alongside 21 other members last month and joined Chair David

Lappartient, President of the French National Olympic Committee and Union

Cycliste Internationale, at Olympic House in Lausanne for the inaugural

meeting.</p>

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<p>The IOC have created the Commission in

recognition of the enormous potential that Esports have to engage the next

generation and to help provide opportunities to athletes and fans. The tasks of

the Commission are mainly to provide recommendations to the IOC Executive Board

supporting the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020+5 for esports and gaming

and to support IFs in governing virtual and electronic forms of their sports, among

others.</p>

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<p>Following the WBSC’s success in Esports,

which saw WBSC eBASEBALL: Power Pros released in successful collaboration with

KONAMI in February and the game selected as one of the 10 sports for the

inaugural Olympic Esports Series, President Fraccari was invited on to the new

Commission. He was joined at Wednesday’s meeting by Konami’s Shinji Namekawa and called it the

start of a new era for Esports.</p>

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<p>President Fraccari said: “It was an honour

to be selected to be a member of the IOC Esports Commission and our first

meeting was productive as we discussed the next steps for Esports within the

Olympic Movement. My fellow Commission members are and I are all excited about

its potential moving forward and I believe that we are ready for a new era of

Esports</p>

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<p>“The WBSC’s partnership with KONAMI and the

hard work of all the WBSC staff members has been the key behind the success of

WBSC eBASEBALL: Power Pros, especially at the Olympic Esport Series and the

recently launch eBaseball Series. I am looking forward to our Esports journey

continuing and the next meeting of the Commission.”</p>

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