Esports Olympics Canceled as IOC and Saudi Arabia Call Off 12-Year Deal for Riyadh Event

The IOC (International Olympic Committee) and Saudi Arabia have called off their 12-year pact to host the Esports Olympics in Riyadh. This is a rare failure for a sporting project that the oil-rich country is backing.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Saudi Arabia have abruptly ended their high-profile 12-year agreement to host a new global Olympic Esports Games in Riyadh, marking one of the most dramatic strategic reversals in the recent history of the international organization that governs the modern Olympic Games.

The deal, announced with major fanfare just last year, was meant to anchor Saudi Arabia’s long-term push into digital sports and gaming as part of its Vision 2030 strategy. Instead, both sides now say they will “pursue eSports goals separately,” leaving the project’s future direction wide open.

Partnership Once Framed as Future

The eSports partnership was unveiled in 2023 during the Paris Olympic cycle, presented as a generational strategy to bring younger audiences into the Olympic movement. Saudi Arabia would stage recurring editions of a new, Olympic-branded eSports event — essentially an eSports Olympics — for more than a decade.

At the time, the IOC emphasized it had taken care to ensure that any chosen game titles would align with Olympic values, avoiding violent or militaristic gameplay. This created an immediate tension: some of the world’s biggest eSports titles, including Counter-Strike and Call of Duty, don’t meet those criteria — even though Saudi Arabia already hosts one of the world’s largest eSports festivals featuring those exact games.

This philosophical gap now appears to have been a crucial fault line.

Delay, Disagreement, and Changing Leadership

The inaugural edition of the Olympic Esports Games had already been pushed back from 2025 to 2027, raising questions among stakeholders. Meanwhile, the IOC saw a significant leadership change, with former athlete Kirsty Coventry stepping into the presidency.

Shortly after Coventry’s appointment, the IOC confirmed that the Saudi agreement was over, describing the decision as mutual and strategic.

“The IOC remains committed to developing an Olympic Esports Games,” the organization said, ”but under a different hosting and partnership model.”

No new host city or timeline was announced.

Why It Fell Apart

Several converging issues are understood to be at play:

• Game title disputes: Saudi Arabia’s preferred esports titles are among the world’s most watched, but often feature simulated violence — something the IOC has repeatedly flagged as incompatible with Olympic values.
• Control and governance: The IOC appears to want stricter control over tournaments, anti-doping measures, athlete eligibility, and broadcasting — areas that eSports typically handles more flexibly.
• Saudi strategic shifts: The kingdom has recently escalated its own independent esports ambitions, including major equity investments in game publishers and expanding the Esports World Cup.

With both sides expanding in different strategic directions, the original model no longer held.

Wider Industry Context: Commercial Ecosystems Continue to Expand

Even as the IOC recalibrates, the eSports industry continues to grow across broadcasting, sponsorship, competitive leagues, and fan engagement — including sports wagering markets.

Many fans follow tournament odds and competitive match predictions through e-sport bookmakers, which aggregate event lines and competitive gaming markets. This ecosystem is expected to expand further as professional gaming formats become more structured globally.

What Happens Next?

The IOC insists the Olympic Esports Games are still happening — just not in Saudi Arabia.

One likely candidate to step in is Singapore, which previously hosted a smaller IOC-backed Olympic Esports Week and has strong ties to the global gaming market.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is expected to double down on its existing powerhouse event, the Esports World Cup — making it a potential rival to any future Olympic-style equivalent.

Turning Point for eSports in Olympic Movement

This split highlights a deeper, unresolved question: Can the Olympic movement truly integrate esports without fundamentally redefining either itself or the games it chooses to recognize?

With millions of young viewers, a multi-billion-dollar investment, and global influence on the line, the IOC’s next move will shape eSports’ long-term place in sport — mainstream stage or separate orbit.

For now, one thing is clear: the eSports road to the Olympics just got much more complicated.