Esports Mogul (ASX:ESH) is “moving to mobile” as the company looks to expand its online tournament gaming platform.

ESH told the market this morning that it’s developing a native mobile application that will operate on iOS and Android.

The strategy is to take advantage of a gap in the mobile games market, where there are currently no pure-play tournament platforms created solely for mobile.

Shares in ESH edged lower in morning trade to 1.8c, off its 2020 highs of almost 3c reached in late-October.

Mobile opportunity

Citing analysis from industry research group NewZoo, ESH said mobile gaming revenue accounts for around half of the $US176 billion global games market, and is growing at more than twice the rate of PCs and consoles.

The company said it’s currently running a closed beta test (product testing with a limited set of users) for its Mogul App at a location in south-east Asia.

The beta test is for the game Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB), a multiplayer online battle arena game that was released in 2016.

The test is initially being run on the Android platform, not iOS.

Mogul said its beta launch is a result of the company’s research into the use of artificial intelligence for mobile gaming platforms.

ESH said its technology will allow it to “automate esports tournaments for game titles”, even if publishers don’t have the APIs (application programming interfaces) in place.

In turn, the company said it will get access to run tournament gameplay for more games in the multi-billion dollar market.

CEO Michael Rubinelli said the company’s API integration technology allows gamers to compete in “all of the best branded mobile esports tournaments available anywhere”.

“Additionally, they will enjoy our ever expanding list of a custom game API integrations which gives players unprecedented levels of automation to greatly enhance their user experience.”

Last month, the company added the private APIs of other mobile titles — Clash Royale and Brawl Stars — into its online tournament platform.

Having completed the integration, the Mogul app “will be further developed, to consume these same APIs, creating a world first experience for gamers on mobile”, ESH said.

The company said its broad strategy is to create a streamlined process for tournament gameplay, resulting in a platform that can efficiently drive revenues from increased brand engagement.