Prince Faisal says esports can enhance Saudi Arabia, China ties

Neha Soni November 12, 2024

SiGMA news

Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, the chairman of the Saudi Esports Federation and the president of the International Esports Federation, attended an event to talk about the development of esports in Asia and how it can enhance ties between Saudi Arabia and China.

Talking at the announcement ceremony of the Esports Asian Champions League, a new multi-genre tournament organised by VSPO, he said in an interview, “With esports, so many tournaments are either online or offline.” He emphasised how innovation is bringing those two worlds together towards a region that is the most advanced esports wise in the world and has some of the best players.

Saudi Arabia has been actively hosting esports programmes and investing in its development over the years recently. The country hosted the inaugural Esports World Cup in Riyadh in July and August. Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group invested $265 million in Shanghai-based VSPO in 2023. Saudi’s Public Investment Fund via gaming unit Savvy Games Group’s acquisition, became the Chinese company’s single largest equity holder, VSPO said.

In addition, Chinese clubs have been performing well in many esports competitions for about a decade. The prince believes that esports can play a crucial role to lead better cooperation and exchanges between the two countries.

Esports and tourism

“Esports is one of those things that really bridges different gaps,” Prince Faisal said. “It’s a sport, so it brings together ministries of sport, it brings together athletes, it brings together events like the Asian Games and, you know, the Olympics and things like that. It is also a fan engagement. It means tourism. So, when we host events like the Esports World Cup, we had a huge number of Chinese fans come to watch the Chinese teams play.”

He also talked about the continued exchanges between the countries with relation to tourism, “We had over 100,000 Chinese tourists visit Saudi last year in 2023, and we look to increase those numbers. We had 30,000 Saudis visit China last year.

We look to increase those numbers. But how do you do that? You have to create an interest. You have to create a spark. What is that first visit? So, a lot of these young men and women that came to visit Saudi for esports, maybe they saw something that looked interesting.”