Saudi Arabia will allegedly build $500 million esports city in Riyadh

The CEO of one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest private equity firms has announced that an “esports city” is set to be built within the nation’s capital, Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia is upping its investment in the gaming industry, this time by building a city dedicated to esports. Mohammed AlQahtani, the CEO of Saudi Arabia Holding Co., announced the project, a $500 million city-within-a-city in Riyadh, in a post on LinkedIn.

The project is scheduled to finish construction in 2024.

“The esports city is expected to attract major esports teams and players from around the world,” AlQahtani said. “It will also provide a platform for local talent to develop and compete on the global stage.”

AlQahtani said that the city will have a capacity of 20,000 spectators and will host several events, including the World Cyber Games, whose roots go back to the early 2000s.

An esports city is coming to Riyadh in 2024

Saudi Arabia has been making ways in the esports ecosystem as it looks to become a major player in the gaming and esports space by 2023. Last year, Saudi Arabian government-backed Savvy Gaming Group spent $1.5 billion to purchase ESL and FACEIT. More recently, the Savvy Gaming Group invested over $250 million in VSPO, a Chinese tournament operator.

This summer, Saudi Arabia will host multiple elite-level esports events as part of the Gamers8 festival. The event will $45 million on offer, making it the “largest prize pool” in esports history, according to the organizers.

The Gamers8 festival, and much of Saudi Arabia’s recent acquisitions in the esports space, has been criticized by the community because of its connections to the county’s government and its record of human rights violations.