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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