During the Paris Games, the IOC decided to introduce another mega event: Olympic e-sports games. Saudi Arabia is fully involved.
Presenting himself as a kind of messiah of sport: IOC boss Thomas Bach spoke via video at the Olympic ESports Week in Singapore in 2023 Photo: Xinhua/imago
The symbol of the Olympics always looks the same. Five rings, five colors. The background must be white. The exact tone and the arrangement are determined by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Each country should be represented by its flag in the colors. The rings are interlocked. In the future, the five rings will decorate another event in addition to the Summer and Winter Games: the Olympic E-Sports Games.
The IOC recently unanimously decided to host the Games. The Games are set to take place in 2025. “If the Olympics and its values are to continue to be part of the lives of young people, we have to go where these young people are,” said IOC President Thomas Bach. After all, there are over three billion gamers worldwide.
Cooperation agreed for 12 years
How often the e-sports games will take place has not yet been clarified. The IOC has also left open which titles will be played. Only the venue can already be announced: Saudi Arabia. Athletes from all over the world will come together here. Even before the vote, the IOC had already contractually agreed to cooperate with the Kingdom for the next twelve years.
“Saudi Arabia has great – if not unique – expertise in the field of e-sports,” Bach explains the decision. What exactly he means by “expertise” is not explained further. But there is one thing that clearly distinguishes Saudi Arabia from other countries when it comes to e-sports: money.
Saudi Arabia has been investing in e-sports for years. The goal is to become the new epicenter for gaming. They want to invest 38 billion dollars in the industry. With the Olympic e-sports games, the country is taking another step closer to its goal. According to the company, 40 percent of the entire industry already belongs to the state-owned company Savvy Games Group. During the Olympic Games in Paris, the first e-sports world championship took place in Saudi Arabia, with the highest prize money ever paid out: 60 million US dollars.
The IOC’s decision to host what is essentially a third Olympic Games has sparked criticism, especially on social media. Sportswashing is the accusation against the regime, in which minorities and women are systematically oppressed.
According to James Lynch, head of the NGO FairSquare, which researches human rights violations in sport, Saudi Arabia is trying to improve its external image with the Olympic e-sports games. “Saudi Arabia has an image problem. Many people find it intimidating and morally questionable,” says Lynch. Sport can be used to tell a new narrative about a country, because “people are deeply moved by their connection to certain sports or teams.” Saudi Arabia is already investing large sums of money in football and golf, for example, as well as other disciplines. But with e-sports, the phenomenon takes on a new quality.
Saudi Arabia is looking young and sporty
“E-sports allows Saudi Arabia to engage with a young audience that is still very impressionable,” explains Lynch. According to audience research firm Global Webindex, 70 percent of the e-sports audience is between the ages of 16 and 34. For them, Saudi Arabia creates an image of a country that is “open to technological change and offers a platform to pursue one’s dreams,” according to Global Webindex.
Women are increasingly being promoted in e-sports in particular, and sexual minorities are also strongly represented. Riot Games, for example, the company behind the games “League of Legends” and “Valorant”, organizes female-only tournaments and finances a support program for diverse young talent. In addition, the cosplay community, which is closely interwoven with the sport, is constantly questioning and breaking down conventional gender stereotypes. Many queer people network here.
“Saudi Arabia is all about showing people a range of different images,” Lynch said. “In the future, when someone criticizes Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations, they can say, ‘It’s not that simple. Look, they’re investing in progressive sports like e-sports.'”
The country tried something similar in 2023. At that time, Saudi Arabia’s tourism authority wanted to become a sponsor of the Women’s World Cup. However, public pressure caused the deal to fall through.
The fact that Saudi Arabia already owns large parts of the e-sports industry and is now also hosting the Olympic e-sports games poses a “real danger” for Lynch that Saudi Arabia will become a monopolist in e-sports. For people in the scene, this would mean one thing above all: “It will be very difficult to be active in e-sports without supporting the crown prince in his program.”
The IOC has not opposed this.
