Montenegro’s gaming and esports sector is emerging as a potential contributor to the country’s digital economy, with industry representatives advocating the development of an export-oriented ecosystem built around software development, competitive gaming, technology events and digital services. The approach is also intended to support tourism by attracting international visitors outside the traditional summer season.
Filip Šoć, president of the Electronic Sports Association of Montenegro and a co-founder of the Montenegro Future Festival, said gaming should be viewed as more than a recreational activity. He argues that the sector could become part of Montenegro’s digital economy, strengthen links with the country’s younger diaspora and support the development of an international events industry capable of generating visitor arrivals before and after the peak holiday period.
Global gaming market creates new economic opportunities
The global gaming industry provides a significant commercial opportunity. Estimates covering video games, mobile gaming, hardware, esports, advertising and related digital services place the market at more than $250 billion annually. Mobile in-app spending alone was estimated at nearly $130 billion in 2025, while gaming remains one of the world’s largest forms of digital entertainment.
For Montenegro, the opportunity does not lie solely in hosting tournaments but in combining multiple activities, including game development, software testing, localisation, esports competitions, streaming and production, training camps, conferences, digital education and technology-focused tourism. With a population of just over 600,000, Montenegro is considered better positioned to develop digital products for international markets than to build a large domestic gaming market. Locally developed games for mobile, PC or console platforms can generate export revenue without the logistics costs associated with physical goods.
Esports events seen as support for year-round tourism
The same principle applies to esports. Rather than competing with Europe’s largest arena destinations, Montenegro could position Bar, Budva, Podgorica and Tivat as compact venues for tournaments, professional team boot camps, executive gatherings and gaming festivals. The competitive advantage would come from combining accommodation capacity, international accessibility, coastal locations and short distances between airports, hotels and event venues.
The Montenegro Future Festival, held in Bar from April 24 to 26, 2026, demonstrated this approach by combining esports tournaments with the World eFootball Cup, Mediterranean competitions in eFootball and Tekken, the European Gaming Summit, discussions on artificial intelligence and blockchain, educational programmes, exhibition areas and additional mobile and console gaming competitions. According to organisers, the event attracted participants and representatives from more than 60 countries, featured more than 120 speakers and welcomed approximately 500 international guests, with total attendance expected to reach around 5,000 visitors over three days.
Companies and organisations associated with the programme included Alibaba, Tencent, Moonton, ESL, BLAST, the International Esports Federation, the European Esports Federation and NASEF. Although multinational companies represented at such events have substantial aggregate market value, this does not represent direct investment committed to Montenegro. The economic impact depends on whether participation leads to supplier agreements, local employment, sponsorships, studio investments, training programmes or recurring events.
Bar identified as a potential technology event hub
Bar, traditionally associated with the Port of Bar, logistics, maritime activity and summer tourism, represents a test case for how technology events could diversify visitor demand. A recurring technology festival held in April brings a different category of visitors at a time when hotel occupancy, restaurant demand and local spending are below seasonal peaks. A single three-day event cannot significantly change the national economy, but a calendar of gaming, technology and creative-industry events from March to June and September to November could create additional demand for hotels, airlines, transport operators, venues, production companies, restaurants and local service providers.
Montenegro recorded 2.61 million tourist arrivals and 15.59 million overnight stays in 2024. Foreign visitors accounted for approximately 96% of overnight stays, while around 94% of all overnight stays were concentrated along the Adriatic coast. These figures show the importance of tourism but also highlight its concentration around coastal destinations and the short peak season. Gaming-related events could support specialist travel by attracting professional players, production teams, speakers, sponsors and technology executives, who typically travel outside school holiday periods and spend on accommodation, technical services, transport and hospitality.
ICT sector provides foundation for gaming development
The broader objective is the development of a domestic digital industry. Earlier analysis of Montenegro’s ICT sector identified annual revenue exceeding €700 million, profit approaching €90 million, approximately 9,600 employees and around 2,860 registered businesses across the wider ICT economy.
The figures include telecommunications, equipment distribution and numerous small or inactive entities, meaning they do not represent the direct contribution of software development alone. However, they indicate that Montenegro has built a technology base larger than its population size might suggest. Major telecommunications operators active in Montenegro include Crnogorski Telekom, controlled by Hrvatski Telekom and ultimately linked to Deutsche Telekom; One Montenegro, part of Hungary’s 4iG Group; m:tel, within Telekom Srbija; and Telemach Montenegro, part of United Group.
International and regional technology companies including Huawei, Ericsson, Siemens, Comtrade and Saga also contribute to the country’s technical and corporate ecosystem. Gaming could add a higher-margin layer to this infrastructure through activities such as intellectual property ownership, game publishing, specialist software engineering, animation, visual effects, sound production, cybersecurity, payment integration and live-content production.
Financing and skills remain key requirements
Capital requirements for gaming differ from traditional infrastructure and tourism projects. A small development studio may require initial financing of between €250,000 and €1 million, depending on team size, production cycle and target platform. More ambitious international titles can require several million euros before commercial release, with no guarantee of success.
Because intellectual property provides limited physical collateral and revenues remain uncertain during development, financing generally relies on founders’ capital, publisher advances, private investors, grants or convertible financing rather than conventional bank lending. Once a title generates recurring revenue, companies become more suitable for traditional working-capital and expansion financing.
Montenegro’s investment policy would therefore need to reflect the specific characteristics of the gaming sector. Tax incentives may attract company registrations, but sustainable growth requires experienced developers, producers, designers, product managers and commercial executives capable of managing projects from concept to launch and monetisation.
Education and diaspora links seen as important for sector growth
Education represents one of the main challenges. While esports can encourage young people to enter technology fields, game production requires knowledge in mathematics, programming, 2D and 3D design, animation, data analytics, artificial intelligence, sound engineering, marketing and intellectual-property management.
Šoć has advocated stronger cooperation between schools, universities, gaming organisations and international education networks through licensed trainers, digital courses, university competitions, game-development laboratories and partnerships between educational institutions and companies. Esports can serve as an entry point into science, technology, engineering and mathematics, provided programmes progress beyond competition into accredited skills development. Montenegro’s diaspora could also contribute by providing mentoring, investment, remote collaboration and company formation opportunities.
Montenegrins working in software, creative industries, finance and digital marketing across Western Europe and North America could provide market access, publishing contacts and technical expertise that remain limited in the domestic ecosystem.
Regulatory framework and infrastructure requirements
The sector requires a clear distinction between gaming, esports and gambling. Video-game development and organised digital competition should not be regulated in the same category as online betting or casino operations. A national framework would need rules covering player protection, tournament integrity, intellectual property rights, prize taxation, data protection, cybersecurity and safeguards for minors.
Public support for events should be connected with measurable outcomes such as international room nights, foreign attendance, media reach, local procurement, sponsorship income, training delivered and business contracts generated. The support provided by the Municipality of Bar and the Bar Tourism Organisation for the Montenegro Future Festival provides a starting point for further development through multi-year scheduling, performance indicators and coordination with hotels, airlines, airports, universities and tourism institutions.
Transport capacity remains one of the practical limitations. International tournaments require reliable air connections, predictable visa procedures, broadband redundancy and technically suitable venues. Although Montenegro’s two airports have recorded passenger growth, seasonal congestion and limited winter routes reduce the country’s ability to host major international events throughout the year.
Montenegro’s realistic path in the global gaming industry
Venue infrastructure represents another challenge. Esports facilities require high-capacity electricity supply, redundant fibre connections, controlled latency, broadcast spaces, production rooms, secure player areas and adaptable seating arrangements. The global gaming industry has recorded long-term growth but has also experienced studio closures, delayed projects and tens of thousands of job losses among major developers and publishers. Consumer attention remains concentrated around a relatively small number of established titles, while user acquisition costs have increased.
For Montenegro, the most realistic opportunity lies in service exports, independent game development, mobile applications, specialist engineering teams, creative production, esports services and regional events. These activities could allow domestic companies to build expertise and international business relationships before taking on the higher financial risks associated with large-scale game publishing.
The sector’s value would come from a combination of export-oriented studios, recurring international events, specialised education programmes and additional off-season visitor spending. The Montenegro Future Festival has demonstrated that Bar can attract a global technology audience, while the next phase depends on converting that visibility into long-term commercial activity, skilled employment and business development.
