E-sports big business 462, seize every e-sports business opportunity
article | Liu Liu
Recently, Saudi Crown Prince Bethumahed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Alsaud announced the national strategy for games and e-sports. This strategy will lead the beginning of a new era of development in the Saudi game and esports industry and make Saudi Arabia a global center for the gaming and esports industry by 2030.
This game and e-sports national strategy is very consistent with Saudi Arabia's vision of 2030, which aims to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy, create new jobs in different industries, and "provide world-class entertainment" for Saudi nationals and tourists.
Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Alsaud
National strategy for e-sports: improve quality of life, provide entertainment opportunities, and create 39,000 jobs for economic growth
Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Alsaud 39,000 jobs "The national game and esports strategy is driven by the creativity and energy of our citizens and gamers, who are at the core of the strategy." The four main goals of the national game and esports strategy are to improve the quality of life by improving the player experience, provide new entertainment opportunities, and achieve economic growth by directly and indirectly contributing approximately 50 billion riyals (about 93.28 billion yuan) to Saudi GDP and to create 39,000 new jobs directly or indirectly through games and esports.
By 2030, in addition to its main goals, Saudi Arabia will implement the strategy through multiple projects, from the holding of large-scale esports events to the creation of local studios capable of producing more than 30 competitive games.
Chief Operating Officer of Saudi Esports Federation Ahmed Bischrie once said: "In 2018, we had only two teams. Today, we have more than 100 professional teams signed for Pro League , with more than 500 professional players officially signed. Even at the level of opportunity creation and employment creation, we are dealing with the growing numbers we are seeing, which we expect will multiply in the coming years."
Saudi intends to implement the strategy through 86 initiatives covering the entire value chain, which will be initiated and managed by more than 20 governments and private entities. These initiatives are divided into eight key areas, including technology and hardware development, game production, e-sports, additional services, and other aspects of infrastructure, regulations, education and talent acquisition.
Saudi Arabia will also hold the 2023 Global E-sports Sports Games in the capital Riyadh in December 2023. Previously, the Global Esports Tour and the eight-week Gamers8 Festival were successfully held in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. The organizing committee of the 2023 Global Esports Games in Riyadh has been established and the preparations for the 2023 GEG have immediately begun. Ahmed Bischli, chief operating officer of the Saudi Esports Federation, was appointed as chairman of the organizing committee. Prince Faisal Ben Bandar, president of
SEF, said: "We are very proud of what our professional esports players have done, but that's not where we want to end. We want to continue to push and start doing more local competitions and participating in more international competitions. By the end of this year, we want our young Saudi men and women to participate and provide them with qualifications and in these The way to get a place on the global stage. I think gaming and esports are one of the most interesting industries because everyone thinks they are just video games their kids play and they don’t understand there is a complete industry behind it.”
2022, the DOTA2 Riyadh Masters has the largest prize pool in the history of the DOTA2 event, up to $4 million, and is organized by the Saudi Arabian Esports Federation.As a loyal e-sports fan, Prince Mohamed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Alsaud is also rumored that will charge tens of thousands of dollars in DOTA2 Warriors' Writ and CS:GO operations every year.
Gaming and esports industries are considered the fastest growing industry of all media industries, with an estimated $200 billion by 2023. This also confirms Saudi Arabia's status as a geographical link between the East and the West.
Invest in Nintendo +acquisition of ESL events Saudi Arabia has double layout for games and e-sports
According to incomplete statistics, in 2021 alone, the expenditure on games and e-sports reached US$1 billion, and the population of Saudi Arabia's gamers is about 21 million. Saudi Arabia has very strong consumption power in games and e-sports, and has a huge player base.
In January 2020, Saudi Arabia spent more than 20 million euros (about 150 million yuan) to build the first smart e-sports venue and invited the Chinese game event executive to host it. This game is the invitational tournament of PUBGM's "Stimulating Battlefield".
In May 2020, Saudi esports organization SAFEIS held an e-sports event called "Gamer without borders". The event covers six major events, with a prize pool of $1.5 million. The bonus was eventually donated as a donation to the team's designated charity organization after the game. The Chairman of SAFEIS hopes to call on people to fight the epidemic and save lives in this way.
In September 2020, the Saudi E-sports Association held a Saudi E-sports Federation Cup, which is a "DOTA2" cup competition with a prize of up to 750,000 US dollars, much higher than the $500,000 US dollars in a single Major. In addition, the Saudi Esports Association has also held CSGO events, with a prize of US$750,000. This number is already very generous for an event that is far from international standards.
Ace led Al-Hilal won the championship
On October 12, the Saudi E-sports Association announced a new e-sports event - saudi eleague. The esports event will cover three events including DOTA2, with a total prize of 2 million Saudi Riyal approximately US$530,000. Among them, the DOTA2 event is called Saudi Dota 2 League, and eight strong teams in Saudi Arabia will be invited to participate. At the same time, the organizer also prepared some small competitions for the audience to participate in. This event has continued to this day.
Prince Faisal, chairman of the Saudi E-sports Association, said: "We hope to bring together more players with the same interests to consolidate the esports foundation in the Saudi region."
In January 2022, PIF (Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund) established the Savvy Gaming Group, aiming to become a leading local and international gaming and e-sports group. On January 24, Savvy Gaming Group (SGG) acquired the well-known e-sports company ESL and the competitive gaming platform FACEIT, and the two will merge into a new company ESL FACEIT.
In February 2022, PIF purchased more than 5% of the shares of two well-known companies, Capcom and Naxon. PIF's shares in Capcom are worth approximately $332 million and their shares in Naxon are worth approximately $883 million. PIF said the purpose of these two investments was purely for investment purposes, and the filing documents show that the most recent purchase occurred between January 25 and January 31.
3 In March, PIF acquired 563,566 shares of the Korean gaming company NCsoft for about 290 billion won (about 1.484 billion yuan). From February to March, PIF has purchased stakes of the company seven times. PIF acquired 9.26% of NCsoft, becoming the second largest shareholder after CEO Taek Jin Kim (11.9% of the shares). The company's representative works include "Paradise" and so on.
On March 10, the PIF market acquired an additional 1.12% of the shares of the Korean game company Nexon, and the total shareholding ratio increased to 8.14%, exceeding 8.1% of the main trust. At the same time, the cumulative investment in Nexon also reached 222.333.45 million yen (about 11.888 billion yuan). The company's representative works include "Karts", "Isle of Adventure", etc.
5 In May, PIF announced that it had acquired 5.01% of Nintendo shares, spending about US$3 billion. For Nintendo, the world's second largest gaming giant and Kyoto-based investment, the $3 billion investment makes PIF its fifth largest shareholder. PIF also announced that this investment as a "pure investment" will not affect Nintendo's future strategy.
Now Saudi Arabia has released its national strategy for e-sports and games. It can be seen that Saudi Arabia has made up its mind to vigorously develop the entertainment industry. Today, Middle East is one of the youngest regions in the world, with about 25% of the population only aged 15 to 29, and has huge potential in the esports market. Saudi Arabia's goal is to build Saudi Arabia into a global center for games and e-sports.
