The Hoyts cinema group is making a major plunge into the e-sports world with plans to construct Australia’s first dedicated e-sports arena in its complex at Moore Park, Sydney – the former Sydney showgrounds.

This will be just the first, it seems. Hoyts has formed a partnership with Gfinity Esports Australia to create e-sports arenas inside a number of existing cinema locations.

The Moore Park venue will host the inaugural Gfinity Elite Series, involving seven weeks of e-sports action in three different games – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Street Fighter V and Rocket League – in front of live audiences. The games will carry prize money of $450,000.

Event Cinemas and Hoyts have previously held ticketed live viewing events for major local and international eSports tournaments. The latest plan seeks to attract bigger audiences and will be broadcast online.