The Saudi crown prince, Mohamed bin Salmanannounced this Monday the launch of the first World Cup of eSports, “the largest event of its kind in the world”and which will be organized annually by the Arab kingdom starting in the summer of 2024, in an event attended by the renowned Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.
The championship “It will be an important platform that contributes to raising the level of the games and electronic sports sector that are under development”while “establishing Saudi Arabia’s status as a pioneering destination for the most prominent sports and world competitions,” according to an official statement.
The announcement occurred during the New World Sport Conference, hosted by the Saudi kingdom with the attendance of leaders from the sports sector, such as the Portuguese star or the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, and from the world’s electronic games.
Bin Salmán – an avowed video game enthusiast – also announced the creation of the non-profit World Cup Foundation for Electronic Sports, which will be in charge of organizing the championship and will be “the engine that will take this sector to a new phase of collaboration” between the partners and competent entities of electronic games and sports.
According to the note, Saudi Arabia estimates that the tournament will provide “more than 50,000 million rials (around US$ 13,328 million) to the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2030, in addition to providing more than 39,000 new job opportunities in the sector,” which “will turn Riyadh into the capital of electronic games.”
This event is planned to be held in closed rooms with various activities and events to be a unique opportunity to attract a new category of visitors interested in the electronic gaming sector and activate the tourism sector in Riyadh during the summer.
At the beginning of August, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) announced the creation of the sports investment company SRJ, whose objective is the purchase and creation of new sporting events and commercial rights to sports competitions.
Among his latest acquisitions are two eSports companies with which he formed a group to seek leadership in the sector, or the 100% of the companies of the English football club Newcastle United, in 2021.
Furthermore, in September of last year, Bin Salmán announced a strategy to turn the country into the “definitive node of the video game and eSports sector” with some US$ 38,000 million of investment in the next eight years to attract up to 250 companies, create 39,000 jobs and generate some 13,300 million dollars annually to the GDP.
Source: Gestion
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