The new oil is sports': Saudis share masterplan to boost esports on global stage By Adrian Pennington Tuesday, August 26, 2025 - 08:49
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Sceptics may call it sportswashing, but the ambition to position Saudi Arabia as the global hub for sports and gaming should not be underestimated. The country is committed to the Vision 2030 sports, tourism, entertainment and investment blueprint for transformation, and its leaders are candid about why and how they will do this.
Investing in gaming and esports is strategic for KSA, explained Saudi Minister of Investment H.E. Eng. Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih. Vision 2030 is about social transformation and pivoting from reliance on natural resources because in many ways the most renewable and most important resource is the human resource. Oil is the most important part of global economy - everybody knows its valuation - but the new oil is in sports and esports.
He was speaking as part of a panel of Saudi leaders at the New Global Sports Conference in Riyadh last weekend (23-24 August), an adjacent event to the finals of the Esports World Cup.
If we were drilling very deep for oil decades ago, we will drill very deep into sports pun intended, he said. People look at gaming as an entertainment tool for consumers. We see it as the cornerstone of transformation that includes tourism, technology, education and social development.
The glue that connects this is PIF [KSA's Public Investment Fund]. To do this we have to get the entire ecosystem to grow together as a global not just a national coalition. We are opening our doors in the kingdom for global investment. We have so much potential to catch up in terms of consumption.
There is huge latent demand for sports in the kingdom. Its digital native population is not only young, 67% (23.5 million of the 35 million population) consider themselves to be active gamers. The market for video games in KSA is already worth $1.8 billion with $6.8 billion projected in gaming consumption by 2030. Esports and gaming's contribution to GDP is projected to hit $13.3 billion by 2030 and generate nearly 39,000 jobs.
People look at gaming as an entertainment tool for consumers. We see it as the cornerstone of transformation that includes tourism, technology, education and social development
Everything we do is be a part of a global network of sports. We have the support. I mean, where else in the world would you get four of the top government ministers sitting with someone in charge of esports to talk about games? It shows the importance that this has to our economy and the importance it has to the future of young men and women in this country.
He pointed out that female participation in esports is on the rise.
The global average for women in esports is 5%. In Saudi it is 20% and growing, he said. We have 500 esports graduates at universities, a good proportion of whom are women, and 3,000 young women who will become pro players in the next 3-4 years.
The chair of the Saudi Esports Federation, HRH Prince Faisal Bin Bandar Bin Sultan Al Saud, elaborated on the growth trajectory of domestic esports.
When we started in 2018 we had one game development company, one professional esports team with six professional players. We had a community that was an unknown entity, almost no investment in the business and industry regulations that were unclear. We had no servers that were hosting games.
Today, we have servers where the ping rate in almost every game is under 40 milliseconds and, on average, probably closer to 10ms. We have dozens of professional teams and 10,000 players. We have a dedicated women's team with equal prize money pools.
Over 3 million people have come to Riaydh in this heat to visit EWC2025. Summer here is a time when everything used to close down. Now hotels, shops, restaurants are open because of esports.
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In MENA as a whole right now some $6 billion in revenue is generated from gaming, over one-third of it emanating from Saudi. That's 350 million gamers in one region speaking one common language of gaming with Saudi at the centre, he added.
But it's not just how can we contribute to help develop talent here. Our goal is to create a global hub for gaming and esports but not the global hub. What we need is more global hubs so the global sport reaches the pinnacle of other sports like football.
The esports exec sharing the stage with the Saudi officials was Ralf Reichert, CEO, Esports World Cup Foundation. The question is not has esports arrived but what are we building around it, he said. The game has expanded as players move across titles, platforms and communities. Recognition is crossing over with sports stars like [F1 driver] Lando Norris visiting where he said the level of skill is insane. This is not hype. This is excellence recognising excellence.
Ralf Reichert, Esports World Cup Foundation
While the likes of Norris, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gerard Piqu , Kak , Alisha Lehmann and Nick Kyrgios have appeared in ambassadorial roles at EWC25, the organisation is helping put the spotlight on esports players by arranging for them to appear at major sports events such as the Grand Prix or the Super Bowl.
We are putting them in the life they deserve to be, which is at the top of the cream of the crowd of any sport out there, said Minister of Sports Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al-Faisal.
World chess champion Magnus Carlsen even competed in the inaugural chess event at EWC2025, winning the tournament and a cheque for $250,000.
One mandate for Vision 2030 is to increase the participation of Saudis in sports. In 2015, 13% of the population spent half an hour or more participating in any sport during a week. Setting a target of 40% by 203
