The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced this Thursday, October 30, the end of its collaboration with the Esports World Cup Foundation and the Saudi Olympic Committee for the organization of the esports Olympic Games, initially planned in Saudi Arabia. Through a press release, the organization puts an end to an ambitious but controversial partnership, while stating that it wants to relaunch the project in another form.
Introduced with great fanfare two years ago, this competition would embody the official entry of competitive gaming into the Olympic galaxy. First announced for 2025, then postponed to 2027, it now disappears from the calendar, “by mutual agreement,” in the words of the IOC.
However, the organization claims to “maintain its long-term ambitions” in this area and is now seeking “a new partnership model” to hold its inaugural edition “as quickly as possible.” A promise that is still vague: no date, no place or a specific framework has been specified.
turn around
This twist ends a huge twelve-year financial agreement with Riyadh, which was supposed to guarantee the Games until 2037. If both sides say they want to “pursue their respective ambitions”, each will now follow “its own path.” For the IOC and its president of the electronic sports commission, the Frenchman David Lappartient, the time has come to rebuild.
The organization must start almost from scratch: without a host country, without a date and facing immense structural challenges. The IOC must, in particular, negotiate with game publishers, integrate international federations, form national teams, create an ethical and anti-doping framework and, above all, select titles that meet its “non-violence” criteria.
Despite this impasse, the IOC assures that it wants to “organize the first edition as soon as possible”, underlining the “strong enthusiasm” generated by this initiative, both in the Olympic movement and in the electronic sports community.
But to transform the event it will be necessary to find new partners, credible and open to the Olympic logic. A great challenge for a discipline that, between private money, gamer culture and the geopolitics of sport, still largely escapes the IOC codes.
Saudi Arabia maintains the same logic of soft power
On the Saudi side, however, the offensive in electronic sports continues. The kingdom has already announced the organization of a eSports Nations Cup starting in 2026 in Riyadh, a competition of nations that will incorporate many of the codes of the future Olympic Games of electronic sports. In fact, video games have become a pillar of Saudi soft power.
With the support of the PIF sovereign fund and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s “Vision 2030” strategy, the monarchy is investing massively to establish itself as a global gaming superpower.
Last blow: the acquisition of Electronic Arts, the giant behind EA Sports FC, The Sims AND Battlefieldfor $55 billion by a Saudi investment fund supported by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of Donald Trump. An operation that confirms the kingdom’s growing control over the global video game industry.
Source: BFM TV
