Riyadh's Big Bet on E-Sports

posted on: Jul 8, 2026

By: Connor J. Buss / Arab America Contributing Writer

As the world draws further into the digital era, Saudi Arabia is beginning to cement itself as the “global capital” for gaming and E-Sports. The annual E-Sports World Cup is the centerpiece of the country’s efforts, where Riyadh decides if the billions of dollars invested bear fruit.

E-Sports

The E-Sports World Cup (formerly known as Gamers8) began on July 6^th, and has quickly become one of the world’s largest gaming events in history. It attracts tens of thousands of visitors with millions more watching online. The event is annually held in Saudi Arabia’s capital city of Riyadh, however this year Paris was chosen to be the host city instead. This is the first time the four-year-old organization is hosting outside of Riyadh. It lasts for seven weeks with four game series per week. Team Falcons, a Saudi E-Sports team founded in 2017 with a reputation for making “superteams” with heavy government funding, is the #1 qualifier for the event. However, arguably the most impressive part of the tournament is the jaw-dropping $75 million prize pool, the largest in E-Sports history.

The event’s meaning extends beyond its players and spectators, though. Closely following the event is Riyadh’ New Global Sport Conference, which will be held from October 30^th until November 1^st at the Sofitel Hotel & Convention Center in the city. The New Global Sport Conference is a forum where CEOs, politicians, investors, and other delegates discuss the future of online gaming and community. This year, delegates emphasize the impact of AI on the gaming industry.

The Vision

This all ties into the “Saudi Vision 2030,” a government program launched by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. The program, launched in 2016, seeks to diversify the Saudi economy by reducing reliance on oil exports, which in 2022 accounted for 40% of the country’s GDP. The program has found recent success in creating jobs and producing social reforms, but has fallen short of some of its goals, most notably the failed $500 billion Neom mega-project. Additionally, the program has been critiqued for environmental impacts, human rights violations, and the forced evictions of over 500,000 people.

Savvy Gaming Group, a company owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, has revealed plans to invest $38 billion into global gaming and E-Sports by 2030. Additionally, the Saudi government has begun buying shares of gaming companies overseas, with over 5% ownership in Capcom and Nexom and a whopping 96% ownership of Japanese game company SNK. The idea is to make Saudi Arabia a “global gaming hub” for online play, and create resources that the country can profit from in order to diversify GDP, as entailed in Saudi Vision 2030.

Additionally, Savvy recently sealed a $55 billion buyout of EA, one of the world’s largest game publishers with major names such as FIFA, Madden NFL, and Battlefield. Such a large purchase of one of the biggest names in gaming is proving that Saudi Arabia isn’t messing around when it comes to the E-Sports market.

Interview Quotes

Brian Ward, former head of studios at Activision Blizzard, is leading the Savvy Gaming Group. GamesBeat journalist Dean Takahashi interviewed him at the Game Developers Conference.

“Given how fast the ecosystem is spooling up, I think it will be a multi-billion dollar market by 2030,” he said. “We will have a steady cadence of things to reveal and we will be putting some points on the board. We will be acting consistently with the values and culture of our industry. And we will show people that we’re serious and hopefully going to build something credible, and not just good for Saudi Arabia, but good for the industry.”

Ward said the recent Saudi investments have shown him that the country is changing.

“I had the same perspective on the place that most Westerners have,” he said. “And then I went there. It’s one thing to read about the diversification of the economy and the transformation of the society and modernization and more options for women. But it’s a different thing to go there and actually see it.”

The Change

Saudi Vision 2030 is proving to completely change the way that people view E-Sports and gaming. Now, it is becoming a revolutionary global industry rather than just some games. A similar story happened in Mongolia, when sheer game talent brought the country onto the E-Sports world stage and gave it the means to expand it’s online infrastructure. In fact, the previous E-Sports World Cup in 2025 saw “The Mongolz” Counter-Strike team crowned as the victors in Riyadh. Now the world watches as Saudi Arabia attempts to establish itself as the global capital of gaming with Saudi Vision 2030. Will they succeed?

Want more articles like this? Sign up for our e-newsletter!
Check out our blog here!