As the attention of the sporting world is poised to focus on the next edition of the Olympic Games in Paris, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has taken the opportunity to announce its partnership with the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Saudi Arabia to host the inaugural Olympic Esports Games 2025 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). 

This partnership between the IOC and the Saudi NOC will be for 12 years, with the Olympic Esports Games anticipated to be held regularly during that time. The announcement to host these games in KSA comes at a time when KSA is also hosting the inaugural Esports World Cup, with this initial edition of the World Cup boasting a combined total prize pool of $60,000,000 – the largest in esports history.

This article considers the background to the IOC’s announcement (including its involvement with esports to date), as well as a look ahead to what we might expect from the initial Olympic Esports Games and the IOC’s decision to bring esports within the Olympic fold.

IOC’s involvement with esports to date

The IOC’s first major engagement with esports was in 2018 when the Esports Forum was set up in Lausanne, Switzerland. This initiative brought together leading figures from both the esports industry and the Olympic Movement, with the aim of discussing opportunities for joint engagement and building understanding regarding the values of the Olympic Games.[1]

The Esports Forum was followed by the IOC’s establishment of an Esports Liaison Group (which would later become the IOC Esports Commission), in collaboration with the Global Association of International Sports. The Esports Liaison Group continued the theme of engagement between the Olympic Movement and esports and gaming stakeholders, to identify further areas of potential collaboration.

More recent developments relate to the 2021 establishment of the Olympic Virtual Series (the IOC’s first pilot venture in esports). However, it was the inaugural Olympic Esports Week held in Singapore in June 2023 that presented a real step change in the IOC’s involvement and endorsement of esports.

The Olympic Esports Week provided an opportunity for the Olympic and esports communities to come together to explore the potential of esports in the Olympic Games. Up to 20,000 spectators attended the Olympic Esports week in-person[2] and many more viewed it via live online streaming. Over 130 players in ten mixed-gender category events came together to compete. The ten disciplines featured were virtual versions of baseball, sailing, cycling, motorsport, chess, tennis, taekwondo, archery, shooting and dancing.

The IOC’s statement regarding its adoption of esports comes in the wake of the recent letter of collaboration between the IOC and the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC).[3] As discussed in one of our recent Sports Shorts blog posts, ESIC plays a key role within the esports sector in protecting the integrity of competition. As commented on at the time by Friedrich Martens, the Head of the Olympic Movement Unit for the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions (OM Unit PMC), the collaboration between the IOC and ESIC is historic in the ever-developing area of esports, allowing the IOC to understand and mitigate new risks.[4] Now that the IOC has signalled its intentions with the announcement of an Olympic Esports Games, and the fact that integrity of competition is such a key principle of the Olympic movement, the IOC’s partnership with ESIC is likely to become more significant.

What will the Olympic Esports Games look like?

Whilst endorsed by the IOC and coming under the Olympic umbrella, the proposed Olympic Esports Games looks set to be a standalone games. In other words, it will be separate from the organisational and financial model of the traditional Olympic Games – esports events will not feature alongside traditional Olympic sports.[5]

Prior to the announcement of the IOC’s partnership with the Saudi NOC, the President of the IOC, Thomas Bach, had indicated that an Olympic Esports Games would likely follow a similar approach to that adopted in the Olympic Esports Week. Notably excluded from the Olympic Esports Week were traditional and classic esports titles such as Dota 2, League of Legends, Fortnite and Counter-Strike. This approach seemed to reflect a hitherto established policy of the IOC to prioritise the virtual editions of sports for which the relevant international federations were already part of the Olympic movement (such as eBASEBALL, Virtual Taekwondo and Tic Tac Bow). These esports titles appear to have been preferred over the aforementioned more traditional options, which are inherently more violent. Many industry commentators have questioned how the more classic and popular esports titles (particularly first-person shooter games such as Call of Duty and Counter-Strike 2) might align with the historic values of the Olympic movement.

However, the IOC’s traditional stance may well be revisited, to some extent, in respect of the Olympic Esports Games. Whilst the titles to be featured are yet to be confirmed, some press speculation has suggested that more traditional titles such as Rocket League, Street Fighter and League of Legends could well feature[6] (as, incidentally, they did in the 2022 editions of the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games).
 

Concluding thoughts and takeaways

As is evident from its inclusion in the Olympic Agenda 2020 + 5, “the encouragement of the development of virtual sports and the further engagement with video gaming communities” has been a key strategic priority of the IOC for some time. The proposed collaboration to stage the Olympic Esports Games not only aligns with that recommendation but also assists more generally to grow “digital engagement with people”, as well as to “reach out beyond the Olympic community” – other recommendations in the Olympic Agenda 2020+5.

It is also noteworthy that Thomas Bach, the IOC President, in his announcement of the collaboration with the Saudi NOC, referenced the “great – if not unique – expertise [of the KSA NOC] in the field of esports with all its stakeholders”. Bach’s comments not only point to the Esports World Cup mentioned above but also the significant investment that the KSA government-controlled Public Investment Fund (PIF) has made in the esports industry. The PIF’s commitment to esports includes: its significant investments in ESL and Faceit; its significant stakes in Electronic Arts (EA), Take-Two Interactive, Activision Blizzard and Nintendo; and its aim to set up a number of game companies locally to significantly raise the contribution of the esports sector to Saudi GDP, as part of its Vision 2030.

A number of commentators have also speculated as to whether the IOC and Saudi NOC’s partnership for the Olympic Esports Games may also pave the way for a potential future KSA bid for the 2036 Olympic Games.[7] In the meantime, however, attention will, no doubt, be focused on Paris and the various issues and discussion points that this presents (which are commented on in previous Sports Shorts blog posts – Part 1 and Part 2).

[1] The Esports Forum, International Olympic Committee, https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/News/2018/07/esports-forum/IOC-GAISF-Esports-Forum-Programme.pdf (July 20 – 21, 2018).

[2] Discussions underway for Paris to host next Olympic Esports Week in 2024 while other cities express interest, Inside the Games, https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1138747/paris-olympic-esports-week (July 10, 2023).

[3] The International Olympic Committee and the Esports Integrity Commission Announce Historic Collaboration, ESIC, https://esic.gg/press-release/the-international-olympic-committee-and-the-esports-integrity-commission-announce-historic-collaboration/ (June 5, 2024).

[4] The International Olympic Committee and the Esports Integrity Commission Announce Historic Collaboration, ESIC, https://esic.gg/press-release/the-international-olympic-committee-and-the-esports-integrity-commission-announce-historic-collaboration/ (June 5, 2024).

[5] IOC proposes creation of Olympic Esports Games, Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/sports/olympics/ioc-proposes-creation-olympic-esports-games-says-bach-2024-06-14/ (June 14, 2024).

[6] Inaugural Olympic Esports Games 2025 will be held in Saudi Arabia, IGN, https://www.ign.com/articles/inaugural-olympic-esports-games-2025-will-be-held-in-saudi-arabia (July 12, 2024).

[7] Saudi Arabia to host inaugural Olympic Esports Games in 2025, https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/olympic-esports-games-2025-saudi-arabia-ioc-gaming/ (July 12, 2024).