International Olympic Committee and Saudi Arabia end 12-year e-sports deal early
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The Eiffel Tower is seen through a net with a part of the logo of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games from the Trocadero square in Paris on July 3, 2024.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BERLIN – The International Olympic Committee and Saudi Arabia have ended their 12-year e-sports partnership after only a year, parting ways to develop separate projects, the IOC said on Oct 30.
Two years before the first Olympic Esports Games were to be held in Riyadh, the IOC said discussions with the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee led to the end of the partnership 14 months after announcing a 12-year deal during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“Recently, the two parties and the Esports World Cup Foundation sat down again and reviewed this initiative,” the IOC said in a statement.
“They mutually agreed that they will end their cooperation on the Olympic Esports Games. At the same time, both parties are committed to pursuing their own e-sports ambitions on separate paths.”
The first Esports Games was originally slated to be held in 2025 in Riyadh but was postponed in February.
The Saudis were guaranteed the hosting of the Games for 12 years from 2025, when the agreement was first announced by the IOC in July 2024.
Then IOC president Thomas Bach had been influential in the creation of the event but has since been replaced at the helm by Kirsty Coventry.
The first two editions of the Esports World Cup, which includes many of the world’s most popular games, were held in 2024 and 2025 in Riyadh. It is organised by Saudi Arabia with the 2025 edition
The IOC has been looking into e-sport for several years, forming a dedicated commission to tap into a younger generation involved with gaming.
With its traditional audience base ageing, the governing body is trying to connect with younger potential Olympic fans. It had hoped that linking up with Saudi Arabia on e-sport would provide the necessary boost, given the country’s own sporting ambitions.
Under the purview of the IOC, the Olympic Virtual Series was held in 2021 while the Olympic Esports Series, which culminated in the inaugural Olympic Esports Week, was staged in Singapore two years later.
Saudi Arabia has invested billions of dollars in sports events, including football, Formula One, boxing and golf, with critics accusing the country of engaging in “sportswashing” its human rights record.
The kingdom, which will host football’s 2034 World Cup and has ambitions to hold the Olympics, has denied accusations of human rights abuses.
“The IOC, for its part, will develop a new approach to the Olympic Esports Games... and pursue a new partnership model,” the IOC said on Oct 30.
“This approach will be a chance to better fit the Olympic Esports Games to the long-term ambitions of the Olympic Movement and to spread the opportunities presented by the Olympic Esports Games more widely, with the objective of having the inaugural Games as soon as possible.”
The Games will now have to start from scratch, without a host country or deadline, despite several challenges posed by trying to integrate e-sport into the Olympic movement.
Negotiations with game publishers, establishing national teams and anti-doping programmes have all also proved difficult.
The IOC’s “non-violence” criteria also means that many of the most popular games cannot be used. REUTERS, AFP
