Madrid and Buenos Aires Strengthen Ties to Boost the Video Game and eSports Industry

The Madrid City Council and the Government of the City of Buenos Aires (CABA) have presented at the International Tourism Fair (FITUR) a series of collaborative initiatives linked to the development of the video game and eSports industry. The announcement was made at the Madrid stand at the fair and forms part of the cooperation agreement and the joint working agenda that both cities have been promoting through the BA in Game and Madrid in Game initiatives.

The meeting was attended by José Luis Martínez-Almeida and Jorge Macri, Mayor of Madrid and Chief of Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, respectively. They were joined by Ángel Niño, Madrid’s Councillor Delegate for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and María Jesús Villamediana Díez, Director of the Video Game Campus, representing Madrid in Game. BA in Game, for its part, was represented by Gabriel Sánchez Zinny, Chief of Staff of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires; Hernán Lombardi, Minister of Economic Development of the City of Buenos Aires; and Nahuel Celerier, Undersecretary for Productive Policies of the City of Buenos Aires.

During the presentation, the first three lines of work to be implemented as part of the cooperation agenda were announced. The first consists of a series of strategic collaborations with the Madrid in Game accelerator, the Start IN Up Program, which will include talent exchange between Argentina and Spain in the coming months, the organization of joint eSports events, and the hosting of an international game jam.

The BA in Game initiative began to take shape when a delegation from Madrid in Game and the Madrid Video Game Cluster traveled to Argentina in 2024 to outline collaboration plans with companies and institutions such as Globant, Sura Gaming, Etermax, and the Buenos Aires Regional Faculty of the National Technological University (UTN), all of them part of Madrid’s business ecosystem.