BERLIN, Oct 30 — The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Saudi Arabia have ended their 12-year e-sports partnership after only a year, parting ways to develop separate projects, the IOC said today.
Two years before the first Olympic E-sports Games are to be held in Riyadh, the IOC said discussions with the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee had ended the partnership 14 months after announcing a 12-year deal during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“Recently, the two parties and the Esports World Cup Foundation sat down again and reviewed this initiative,” the IOC said in a statement. “They mutually agreed they will end their cooperation on the Olympic E-sports Games. Both parties are committed to pursuing their own e-sports ambitions on separate paths.”
The IOC has been looking into e-sports for several years, forming a dedicated commission to find opportunities to tap into a younger generation involved in gaming.
With its traditional audience base ageing, the governing body is trying to connect with younger potential Olympics fans. It had hoped that linking up with Saudi Arabia on e-sports would provide the necessary boost given the country’s own sporting ambitions.
Saudi Arabia has invested billions of dollars in sports events, including soccer, Formula One, boxing and golf, with critics accusing the country of engaging in “sportswashing” over its human rights record.
The kingdom, which will host the 2034 soccer World Cup and has ambitions to land the summer Olympics, has denied accusations of human rights abuses.
“The IOC, for its part, will develop a new approach to the Olympic E-sports Games ... and pursue a new partnership model,” the committee said.
“This approach will be a chance to better fit the Olympic E-sports Games to the long-term ambitions of the Olympic movement and to spread the opportunities presented by the Olympic E-sports Games more widely, with the objective of having the inaugural Games as soon as possible.”
