A few days ago, we witnessed the New Global Sports Conference in Riyadh, where we saw Saudi Arabia take a few moves that give it complete dominance over the world esports scene by announcing the Esports National Cup with 15 games included, signing more deals, and showing off the success of the Esports World Cup (EWC) in numbers.
Esports Nations Cup
During the conference, the Esports World Cup organization announced the launch of the Esports Nations Cup in partnership with Ubisoft, EA Sports, Tencent, and Krafton. The Tournament is going to include over 15 Esports games with the participation of multiple countries with their national team in each game.
The Tournament not only includes more esports players in the professional esports events, but it is also rewarding participants generously with over 70 million USD of total prize pool.
The Esports Nations Cup is set to launch in November 2026 as the biggest national esports tournament, even bigger than the IESF’s tournaments, with the participation of over 100 countries and thousands of players of different games expected to participate, given the number of countries and the average number of esports teams.
More Deals, Bigger esports Leap
The conference not only included activations and speeches, but also featured deals that are set to provide significant support for the esports industry and help Saudi Arabian culture spread globally.
The most significant deal was signed between Impact64, one of the most active technology investors in Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi gaming studio Kammelna, best known for digitising the Kingdom’s iconic card game Baloot, which had over 6 million downloads since its first launch, with an acquisition deal of 53 million USD.
In addition, Ubisoft announced its plan to publish a DLC for its game Assassin’s Creed Mirage that includes a new chapter that features al Ola City in the 9th Century.
Last but not least, it was announced that Saudi Arabia is building the biggest Olympic city dedicated to esports, fostering the latest worldwide technologies and Esports innovation to support its big plans for becoming the worldwide esports bionner.
Big spend on the Riyadh season? The return on investment was a lot higher.
It was announced that the ROI of the EWC reached over 200% with the city of Riyadh earning over 6 billion USD during the Riyadh season, which involved the EWC as one of its biggest events, these set of events had a significant boost on hotel bookings, Transportation usage, Airflights, and boosted the city’s facilities earnings because of all the visitors hosted in the city during the season.
It was also added that tourists used to leave Riyadh in the summer because of the high temperature, but now, even with higher temperatures, the city was able to attract more visitors from around the globe with its big Activations and events that engaged big amounts of audiences.
The Saudi Arabian Effect on the world of esports
As we can all notice, the announcements discussed in the conference are not just a few plans to host more games, but it is actually big moves that will rewrite the esports scene around the globe.
With the upcoming activations, we can easily assume that Saudi Arabian Esports Entities between the EWC and the Esports National Cup will be replacing the International Esports Federation by offering a wide range of activities, bigger prize pools, and more inclusion of professional esports players from across different countries and continents.
With the big reach they have and collaborations with the biggest game publishers around the world, we expect that the Future of esports will definitely be Saudi Arabian.
