IOC Announces Olympic Esports Games To Be Hosted In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on July 12, announced that it has partnered with the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Saudi Arabia to host the inaugural Olympic Esports Games 2025 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This groundbreaking step follows the IOC’s recent announcement that the IOC Executive Board (EB) has established Olympic Esports Games. The proposal will be made to the IOC Session, which will be held on the eve of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

About Olympic Esports Games

The duration of the partnership between the IOC and the Saudi NOC will be 12 years, with Olympic Esports Games held regularly. HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal, Minister of Sport and President of the Saudi Arabian Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said: “Saudi Arabia is hugely excited by the prospect of partnering with the IOC and helping to welcome a completely new era for international sport. We believe that to take part in the Olympic Games is one of the greatest honours any athlete can achieve. And we are proud to support the writing of a new chapter in Olympic history that has the potential to inspire new dreams and new ambitions for literally millions of athletes around the world.

Significant growth of sport

The partnership comes at a time of significant growth of sport overall in Saudi Arabia, and is driven by the country’s social and economic transformation under Vision 2030. Since 2018, the Kingdom has been entrusted with delivering some of the biggest global sports events, staging over 100 international events for both male and female athletes, including esports, football, motorsports, tennis, equestrian and golf, attracting over 2.6 million sports fans.

Sports participation levels

As a result, sport has become a growing part of everyday life in Saudi Arabia at every level, from amateur to elite. Overall sports participation levels have more than tripled since 2015 to almost 50 per cent of the country’s population. The number of sports federations has also increased threefold during this time, from 32 to 98, with the Saudi Esports Federation being one example of the growth underway. As many as 67 per cent of the Saudi population consider themselves to be gamers, with an ever-increasing number, currently 100, of pro esports players pursuing full-time careers.

Rapid growth in women’s sport

Women’s sport in particular has witnessed rapid growth, and almost half of the Kingdom’s 23 million gamers are female. There are now also over 330,000 registered female athletes and nearly 40 women’s national teams competing internationally. Grassroots sport is flourishing, too, with sport firmly part of the school curriculum for all girls, as demonstrated by the 70,000 schoolgirls playing in the school football league each week. In addition to playing sport, reforms to regulations ensure there is female representation on the boards of all sports federations, with over 100 women now appointed, including seven female federation presidents. Additionally, all female and male athletes receive exactly the same level of pay when on national duty in their sport.