stc Bahrain, a world-class digital enabler, has enhanced its partnership with Subspace, the speed-of-light multiplayer network infrastructure and services platform, making it the biggest Subspace node in Bahrain. This setup, one of the largest in the region, is guaranteed to upgrade the regional gaming ecosystem and improve customers’ gaming experiences in multiplayer online games throughout the Arabian Gulf. This partnership, the first of its kind in Bahrain, was formed in 2019. The upgrade has come in response to the growing demands of the exponentially growing gaming business.

With Bahrain positioning itself as gaming hub for the GCC, stc Bahrain endeavors to support the Kingdom’s digital vision by exploring new opportunities to cater for the gaming community. By joining forces with significant gaming entities, such as Subspace, stc Bahrain aims to become the preferred provider for gamers offering the most advanced set-up with links to the region, whilst maintaining a regional network across the stc Group.

To provide gamers with the ultimate user experience, this partnership will allow stc Bahrain to improve latency and guarantee the ultimate gaming experience for its users. This is where Subspace, a network built for online multiplayer games, accelerates and protects the gaming data by significantly reducing lag and creating smooth and uninterrupted experience for users. Moreover, this service upgrade significantly enhances the experiences provided to stc Bahrain’s wholesale partners, both on a local and regional level.

stc Bahrain customers will benefit from a seamless gaming experience, as all games provided through the Subspace network will have the best latency rates. With stc Bahrain taking the lead in enhancing the gaming set-up capabilities with new technologies, making it also the most advanced in the Kingdom.

Eng. Nezar Banabeela, CEO of stc Bahrain, commented: “We are delighted to partner with Subspace to enhance the gaming experience of our customers. The Middle East gaming industry is growing at an exponential rate and we recognize the gap in the market for improving gamers’ needs. Our wholesale portfolio is further enriched through this partnership, where by combining stc Group’s regional power and footprint, along with Subspace’s gaming networking expertise, we are able to provide the best wholesale service to our local and regional partners.”

“Subspace is revolutionizing player experience by giving games control of the network. We provide the fastest, most secure, and fully controllable gaming network to support any game, any protocol, any scale.

For Subspace to truly thrive and make a difference, collaborations like this one are crucial. We can only create this seamless experience through partnerships like the one we have with stc and we’re delighted to be working together to form the backbone of the region’s online gaming experience,” William King, CTO at Subspace, said.

This regional partnership comes at an opportune time, with gaming as a serious form of entertainment reaching an all-time high during Covid-19 with many of the top players coming from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Further attributing to Bahrain’s growing gaming popularity, Statista’s Digital Market Outlook reveals that revenue in the online games segment in Bahrain is projected to reach US$2m in 2021 and the number of users is expected to amount to 0.3 million by 2025. The figures point to a gaming surge across the Middle East, with the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB), estimating the MENA gaming market value to reach USD4 billion by 2022.

Additionally, this partnership is well positioned to address the emerging needs of gamers across the GCC and MENA, the world’s fast growing video game market in terms of YoY player growth at 8.8% in 2020 (according to Newzoo).

With this partnership, stc Bahrain strengthens its position as the owner of one of the largest wholesale market shares in the Kingdom, promoting Bahrain as the ideal gateway to the world for other international operators.

For more information, please visit www.stc.com.bh