For eight weeks, all gamers’ eyes were on Riyadh but for some rights groups the real winner of the first Esports World Cup was Saudi Arabia, which they accused of deflecting attention from its human rights record by hosting the event.
While 1,500 people competed through July and August for the US$60 million prize pot, some prominent industry insiders boycotted the competition while some participants wore Pride flags on their clothes apparently to signal support for a community criminalised in the kingdom.
Other gamers sought to address criticism from those who saw the tournament as another example of sportswashing, an accusation levelled at countries perceived to be using sport to improve their tarnished image abroad.
“Progress lies in engagement, not isolation,” wrote the co-CEO of Team Liquid, a prominent Esports team in a post on X.
Sports, Esports and gaming all feature in Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s transformation plan, known as Vision 2030, through which the government is spending billions of dollars to diversify the kingdom’s economy and reduce its reliance on oil.
Global video games revenue, which includes Esports as a small component, stood at US$227.6 billion in 2023, according to a report by audit firm PwC.
“Saudi Arabia’s involvement in this particular sector is astute as it allows them to reach out to younger audiences, who may be more impressionable than older generations,” said Stanis Elsborg, an analyst at Play the Game, an initiative run by the Danish Institute for Sports Studies (Idan) that aims to promote democracy, transparency, and freedom of expression in sport.
“However, this poses a significant challenge as it represents a broader strategy to use the values associated with sports to obscure the reality of what is happening in Saudi Arabia,” he said in emailed responses to questions from Context.
“The Esports community, which has traditionally grown organically and created their own set of values of inclusion, room for the LGBTQ+ community and so on, now faces the prospect of being overshadowed and co-opted by Saudi Arabia’s influence and political agenda.”
Saudi Arabia has invested large amounts of money into sports including soccer, Formula One, boxing and golf, with critics accusing the country of engaging in sportswashing over its human rights record. The kingdom has denied accusations of human rights abuses.
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Saudi Arabia’s involvement in this particular sector is astute as it allows them to reach out to younger audiences, who may be more impressionable than older generations.
Stanis Elsborg, analyst, Play the Game
Last year, the crown prince said he does not care about allegations of sportswashing and that he will continue funding sport if it adds to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“If sportswashing (is) going to increase my GDP by 1 per cent, then we’ll continue doing sportswashing,” the crown prince told Fox News.
The Saudi government and the organisers of the Esports World Cup did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations of the event being an example of sportswashing.
Tarnished record
In the case of Esports, Saudi Arabia is backing its vision with billions of dollars of investment in the gaming sector.
The kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund PIF has spent US$8.1 billion to acquire stakes in gaming behemoths Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts and Take-Two.
“I think the amount of money that they’re investing and putting in is going to overwhelm any cultural issues or political issues,” said Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau, a New York-based video game consultant.
In 2020, Human Rights Watch (HRW) launched a global campaign to counter Saudi government efforts “to whitewash its dismal rights record”, citing abuses including Saudi involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by Saudi agents in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in an operation which US intelligence believed was ordered by the crown prince, who has been the kingdom’s de facto ruler for several years.
Last year, HRW released a report that accused the kingdom of killing hundreds of Ethiopian asylum seekers who tried to cross into Saudi from Yemen between March 2022 and June 2023.
A Saudi official described HRW’s allegations as “unfounded and not based on reliable sources”. Saudi authorities have also strongly denied allegations made by UN officials in 2022 that border guards systematically killed migrants.
Despite some reforms introduced by the crown prince, women are still routinely detained for expressing their views and have limited rights in the country.
Manahel Al-Otaibi was sentenced in January for posting the social media hashtag “Abolish male guardianship” and videos of her wearing what were deemed to be “indecent clothes” and shopping without an abaya, a long robe.
Saudi Arabia’s counter-terrorism law, under which Al-Otaibi was convicted, has been criticised by the United Nations as an overly broad tool to stifle dissent.
In 2022 the kingdom executed 81 men in one day on terrorism and other charges.
Esports push
Despite the criticism, however, the International Olympic Committee said in July that Saudi Arabia will host the inaugural Olympics Esports Games in 2025.
“We are a youthful nation, with over 23 million gamers,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal, the Saudi minister of sport, said at the time.
“Our kingdom has become a global hub for professional Esports … This is a natural next step for our young athletes, our country and the global Esports community.”
The kingdom is even building entire districts dedicated to Esports, sports and entertainment.
Qiddiya, near Riyadh, was among the first of the so-called giga-projects announced in 2018 and was scheduled to open in 2022. However, the work is behind schedule and the first theme parks, Six Flags and Aqua Arabia, are now expected to open in 2025.
Qiddiya was also supposed to host a gaming and Esports district that developers said would attract up to 10 million visitors a year.
Saudi officials in the Esports arena are also closely linked to the country’s rulers.
According to research by Play the Game, Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al-Saud, the brother of Princess Reema bint Bandar Al-Saud who is the kingdom’s ambassador to the United States, holds several prominent posts in the Saudi Esports sector.
He is chairman of the Saudi Esports Federation, vice president of the Global Esports Federation, and global vice president of the International Esports Federation.
And while some gamers boycotted the Riyadh World Cup, others praised the organisation of the event and said human rights issues were not a concern for many players.
“We come, we represent, we win, and we leave,” said one participant, who did not want to give their name.
Breslau said the tournament would boost Esports in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East but he noted that the tournament still had issues of inclusivity.
“If you were a fan and you were a gay fan, or you were someone that was LBGTQ, you could not wear those jerseys (with the Pride flags) at the event,” he said. “The exception was only given to the players because they kind of have semi-immunity (from) competing in the event.”
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