RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is set to make history by hosting the first-ever Olympic Esports Games in 2027, a landmark achievement in the country’s ambitious quest to become a global leader in gaming and esports.

This announcement, made by the International Olympic Committee, coincided with the ongoing LEAP 2025 Tech Conference in Riyadh.

It follows a 12-year agreement with Saudi Arabia aimed at engaging younger audiences, with a six-member committee tasked with selecting the games to be featured as part of the effort to integrate esports into the Olympic framework.

Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan, chairman of the Saudi Esports Federation, shared his thoughts during a panel discussion titled “Gaming Beyond Entertainment: Reimagining Society and Shaping the Future of Saudi Arabia.” He stated: “We anticipate hosting multiple editions in the future.”

Driven by the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 initiative, which focuses on economic and technological transformation, gaming and esports have become vital sectors.

Prince Faisal reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s commitment to becoming a global gaming hub by the end of the decade. “We will become a global hub for gaming and esports by 2030,” he declared.

Highlighting the Kingdom’s increasing influence in the industry, Prince Faisal emphasized Saudi Arabia’s ambition to lead in gaming career opportunities.

“We want Saudi to be a natural part of that conversation. When someone thinks about a career in gaming and esports, we want them to consider Saudi Arabia just as quickly as any other major gaming hub,” he said.

Prince Faisal also emphasized the immersive nature of gaming, noting that it is the only medium where individuals actively engage with content rather than merely consuming it. “Gaming allows people to experience a day in someone else’s life, to walk a mile in their shoes in a way never before possible,” he noted.

Saudi Arabia’s thriving gaming culture reinforces its aspirations. “Our last study, conducted a few years ago, revealed that 67 percent of our population considers themselves gamers,” Prince Faisal shared. He also highlighted the inclusivity of the gaming community, with 48 percent of Saudi gamers being women and 52 percent men.

Encouraging young talent to pursue opportunities in the gaming industry, Prince Faisal stressed the sector’s vast career potential. “Whatever it is that you do, there is a career path for you within this industry, and it’s available now—not just in the future,” he asserted.

The panel discussion also featured insights from industry leaders, including Danny Tang, co-founder and CEO of Hero Esports, who stressed the intrinsic link between gaming and esports. “A well-developed esports ecosystem extends the life cycle of a game, ensuring sustained engagement and innovation,” Tang said.

Khizer Khaderi, founding director of the Stanford Human Perception Lab and faculty member at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, highlighted gaming’s transformative role in human-technology interaction. 

“Over the last 40 years, we’ve made it easier for humans to connect with technology. Gaming is now the perfect platform for machines to connect back with humans,” he said. Khaderi also emphasized the sector’s vast potential for innovation. “The ability to innovate is here, and it’s happening through gaming.”

Looking ahead, Prince Faisal called on industry professionals and aspiring gamers to seize the moment. 

The tools and opportunities are available now, he said. “You are the most important part of what we do—so just do something.”

RIYADH: Crowdfunding has emerged as one of the fastest-growing financial channels in Saudi Arabia, with platforms doubling in size annually and surpassing SR3 billion ($800 million) in capital last year, according to a top official. 

During a panel discussion at the Kingdom’s premier tech conference, LEAP 2025, Mohammed El-Kuwaiz, chairman of the Capital Market Authority, stated the financing landscape has also expanded significantly, moving beyond traditional bank loans and initial public offerings. 

“Whether we look at debt crowdfunding or equity crowdfunding, these platforms have actually been doubling in size every year for the past three years,” he said, highlighting their growing role in the country’s evolving financial ecosystem. 

Alongside crowdfunding, Saudi Arabia has introduced a range of new financing options to support businesses at different stages of growth. 

“We used to think of financing as one of two routes, either bank financing or IPOs. Today, that menu includes a plethora of investment and financing options,” El-Kuwaiz said. He highlighted that the country now has eight distinct investment and financing stages, with half of these introduced in recent years. 

The rapid rise of crowdfunding is part of a broader transformation in the Kingdom’s capital markets, which have expanded significantly since the Vision 2030 economic diversification plan was unveiled in 2016.

“The story of capital markets and how they serve entrepreneurs is very much running in parallel with the growth that we’ve been seeing in LEAP. We have moved from being the 25th or 26th largest market in the world to now being one of the top 10 largest markets in the world,” he said. 

The regulatory environment has also evolved to support business formation, with changes to the country’s corporations law allowing for multiple classes of shares and various investor rights. 

“Most startups and most founders require a degree of flexibility that our former corporations’ law did not allow them to serve,” El-Kuwaiz said, citing features such as drag-along and tag-along rights that were previously unavailable. 

Exit strategies for startups have expanded as well, with IPO activity accelerating and mergers and acquisition regulations being streamlined. 

“We moved from doing something like 10 listings a year to, in the last couple of years, doing in excess of 40 IPOs a year, and more than 50 percent of these listings are actually small and medium businesses. Many of them are actually venture-backed,” El-Kuwaiz said. 

However, mergers and acquisitions remain the most common exit strategy, with regulatory updates in 2017 and 2018 fueling a surge in M&A transactions. 

“As a result of that first rewrite, we have actually seen in the last five or six years more M&A activity than since we established the CMA 15 years ago,” he added. 

Saudi Arabia’s capital market transformation has also made it an increasingly attractive destination for international entrepreneurs. 

“We have seen more and more from outside of the region seriously considering relocating to Saudi Arabia because of the market, because of these regulatory developments, and this potential to exit,” the CMA said.

Debt markets have also played a crucial role in financing businesses, surpassing equity markets in capital raised since 2021. 

El-Kuwaiz added that since then, “our debt capital market has been raising more capital for businesses and governments than the equity capital market, both in primary and secondary.” 

He also underlined that Saudi Arabia is developing its private credit sector alongside its debt market, with expectations that the latter will grow faster in the near term due to its liquidity and traceability advantages. 

El-Kuwaiz emphasized that the Kingdom’s efforts to enhance business formation, financing, and exit opportunities are creating a model that extends beyond national borders. 

“When we first started, we thought that solving the entrepreneurial problem was a Saudi-specific problem,” he said, adding: “But as we have evolved, we recognize that if we solve this problem, we can actually solve this problem for all entrepreneurs — whether in Saudi, the Gulf region, or the broader Middle East.”