What If OATING Entered Malaysian Esports? An Oat Milk Brand’s Route Into Gaming

Thought experiment, and a disclosure. OATING has not announced any esports plans. Every scenario below is KITAMEN’s own analysis, not a reported deal. We also state the connection plainly: OATING’s website and B2B platform were built by Serenitilabs, which shares a founder with KITAMEN. This article is unpaid editorial. Brand details are OATING’s own published positioning at oating.com, read 19 July 2026 — we have not independently verified retail availability.

Executive Summary

• In June we published a hypothetical: what would happen if a Malaysian F&B brand went all-in on esports? That piece had no real brand attached to it. This one does.
• OATING positions itself as Malaysian-owned and crafted in Sweden, selling a barista-grade 1L cafe format alongside a 200ml retail range — a product shape that happens to map onto how esports venues actually buy drinks.
• The interesting move is not sponsorship. It is distribution: the 1L format belongs behind a counter, and Malaysian esports venues are counters nobody is fighting over.

Deep Dive: The Category Nobody Contests

Esports beverage sponsorship has a default setting, and that setting is energy drinks. Shikenso traces beverage partnerships in the scene back to the early 2000s, and Beverage Daily documents how the category is now marketed to gamers as a performance product rather than a soft drink. If you are a beverage brand with a large budget, the lane is well-lit and extremely crowded.

A brand like OATING cannot win that auction and should not try. Outbidding Red Bull for a league slot is a losing trade for a brand that has not launched at scale. But the energy drink lane is only one of the ways a drink reaches a gamer, and it is the most expensive one.

The unclaimed position is the counter, not the jersey. Every esports venue, gaming cafe and campus tournament in Malaysia serves drinks. Someone supplies them. That supply relationship is quiet, unglamorous, contractual, and almost never contested by a sponsorship team — which is exactly why it is available.

Local Insight: Malaysia Is Taxing the Default

The regulatory wind is blowing against sugar. Malaysia’s excise duty on sugar-sweetened beverages rose to 90 sen per litre on 1 January 2025, up from 50 sen (The Edge Malaysia). The duty reaches non-alcoholic drinks above 5g of sugar per 100ml and milk-based drinks above 7g. Whether the tax has actually changed what Malaysians drink is still contested — CodeBlue reports analysts arguing it has not moved consumption much — but the direction of policy is not ambiguous.

That matters for a venue operator more than it matters for a player. A venue buying in bulk feels duty changes in its cost line, and a category under sustained fiscal pressure is a category worth diversifying away from. An oat milk supplier walking into that conversation is not selling health positioning. It is selling a hedge.

There is a second Malaysian angle that has nothing to do with tax. Coffee is the social ritual of Malaysian venue culture — the mamak, the kopitiam, the cafe next to the arena. A brand whose entire product claim is that it steams and pours properly is speaking the language of that counter, not the language of a jersey.

What OATING Actually Sells

For clarity, and stated as the brand’s own positioning rather than our finding: OATING describes itself as Malaysian-owned and crafted in Sweden, under the line “Pure oat. Perfect pour.” The range is Original (200ml and 1L), Chocolate (200ml), Coffee (200ml), Matcha (200ml), Strawberry (200ml), Banana (200ml), with the 1L presented as the barista-grade cafe format. A granola line (Honey Roasted, Berry & Almond, Chocolate & Hazelnut, Banana & Almond) is listed as coming soon in 70g pouches. See oating.com.

The product claims are ordinary and checkable-in-a-cup rather than clinical: silky texture, steams and foams, plant-based, and priced to be an everyday choice rather than a premium one. The brand states an ambition to become Asia’s largest oat milk brand.

We are deliberately not listing where you can buy it. OATING is pre-launch, and the retail and cafe lists currently published on its own site did not survive our verification — so we have left them out rather than repeat them.

The Route In, If It Wanted One

Step one is supply, not sponsorship. Pick five venues, not fifty. Supply the 1L format at a price the operator can actually make margin on, and let the drink appear on the menu board as a normal option rather than a promotion.

Step two is the tournament day. Campus and community events are where a beverage brand can be present at a cost that does not require a marketing committee. KITAMEN has run this shape of event repeatedly — the Kejohanan E-Sukan Kampus case study is the reference point — and the F&B slot at these events is routinely unfilled.

Step three is the only one that looks like marketing. Once the product is genuinely behind counters, a team or creator partnership stops being a billboard and starts being a story with a supply chain behind it. Brands that skip to step three first are the ones whose esports spend quietly disappears after a season.

The Central Connection

KITAMEN’s interest here is structural rather than promotional. We publish the Malaysian esports facilities directory and we have written at length about the venue problem: the scene runs on malls, dewan and campus halls rather than purpose-built arenas. Every one of those rooms has a drinks decision attached to it.

That is the honest version of this thought experiment. The opportunity is not that esports needs oat milk. It is that Malaysian esports venues are a distribution channel that almost no F&B brand has bothered to map — and mapping it is cheaper than one season of jersey placement.

Quick Data Snapshot

Frequently Asked Questions

Is OATING actually sponsoring esports in Malaysia?

No. OATING has not announced any esports activity. This article is a thought experiment written by KITAMEN, and every scenario in it is our own analysis rather than a reported or planned deal.

What is OATING?

OATING is an oat milk brand that positions itself as Malaysian-owned and crafted in Sweden. Its published range covers a 200ml retail line in Original, Chocolate, Coffee, Matcha, Strawberry and Banana, plus a 1L format presented as barista-grade for cafes.

Why would an oat milk brand target esports venues instead of teams?

Because venue supply is uncontested and team sponsorship is not. Energy drinks dominate esports sponsorship budgets, but the drinks actually served at Malaysian gaming venues, campus tournaments and community events are bought through quiet supply relationships that few beverage brands have mapped.

Does Malaysia’s sugar tax affect what esports venues serve?

It affects their costs. The excise duty on sugar-sweetened beverages rose to 90 sen per litre on 1 January 2025, covering non-alcoholic drinks above 5g of sugar per 100ml. Venues buying in volume feel that in their cost line, which makes diversifying the drinks mix a commercial question rather than a health one.

Is KITAMEN connected to OATING?

Yes, and we state it openly. OATING’s website and B2B platform were built by Serenitilabs, which shares a founder with KITAMEN. This article is unpaid editorial, and we have not independently verified OATING’s retail availability.

Call to Action

Running a venue, a campus tournament or a brand that wants into Malaysian esports without overpaying for a jersey slot? Contact KITAMEN or explore our services.

Related Knowledgebase Articles

• What If a Malaysian F&B Brand Entered Esports?
• What If Local Malaysian Brands Went All-In on Esports?
• Where Malaysia Plays: Malls, Dewan, and the Venue Problem
• Esports Facilities in Malaysia 2026
• The ROI of Sponsoring an Esports Tournament in Malaysia

Versi Bahasa Melayu

OATING ialah jenama susu oat yang menyatakan dirinya milik Malaysia dan dihasilkan di Sweden. Artikel ini ialah eksperimen pemikiran: bagaimana jenama seperti OATING boleh memasuki esukan Malaysia tanpa bersaing membeli slot minuman tenaga. Hujah utamanya mudah — peluang sebenar bukan pada jersi pasukan, tetapi pada kaunter venue, kafe gaming dan kejohanan kampus yang setiap hari perlu membekalkan minuman. Cukai eksais minuman bergula Malaysia naik kepada 90 sen seliter pada 1 Januari 2025, menjadikan campuran minuman satu soalan kos bagi pengendali venue. OATING belum mengumumkan sebarang rancangan esukan.