Empowering Young Gamers To Secure Their Future

eSports and gaming entrepreneur Samson Oh built a gaming empire in Singapore against all odds. Now, he hopes to pay it forward by empowering young gamers to secure their future.

- Karen Tee

MANY PEOPLE LOOK BACK ON THEIR CHILDHOODS WITH ROSE-TINTED GLASSES AND THE NOSTALGIA OF CAREFREE DAYS SPENT FROLICKING WITH FRIENDS. BUT NOT SAMSON OH.

He refers to his growing-up days in Imbi, once the red-light district of Kuala Lumpur, as the “dark side”. As a child, Oh had a front-row seat to the unsavoury drama, violence and corruption that plagued the neighbourhood.

“In the ‘70s, I lived next to the headquarters of one of the first red-light districts in Kuala Lumpur. My mother was a seamstress, and sometimes she would ask me to deliver clothes to where the prostitutes lived,” says the 45-year-old, now a self-made esports and gaming entrepreneur. His business suite in this sector includes esports news portal Gosu Gamers, esports talent agency Team Flash, media agency Redd+E and the incubator Cargo Studio.

Years after he worked his way out of Imbi, he still has vivid memories of peering out of his ground floor apartment window when commotions occurred on the street. “There was a lot of bribery and corruption, and I saw people getting stabbed outside my door. In school, I sometimes had to protect my schoolmates from gangsters,” says Oh, who became a Singapore citizen this year. “I have seen things no person should.”

A turning point for the young Oh came when he was introduced to a church, where older children like himself were tasked with taking care of the younger ones. “This was the best leadership school for me. It taught me to have a heart for youth and to leave no one behind. That has carried me through my life,” he reflects.