The Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) has proposed Saudi Arabia because the host nation for its inaugural Olympic Esports Video games in 2025.
The length of the partnership between the IOC and the Saudi Nationwide Olympic Committee (NOC) shall be 12 years.
The proposal shall be introduced to the IOC Session on the eve of the 2024 Olympic Video games in Paris, which kick off on July 26.
IOC President Thomas Bach mentioned the partnership would faucet into Saudi Arabia’s know-how within the Esports match area.
Saudi Arabia is at the moment internet hosting the primary version of the Esports World Cup, that includes 22 occasions throughout 21 completely different online game titles, which replaces its Gamers8 match which ran for 2 editions.
“We’re very lucky to have the ability to work with the Saudi NOC on the Olympic Esports Video games, as a result of it has nice – if not distinctive – experience within the area of esports with all its stakeholders. The Olympic Esports Video games will drastically profit from this expertise,” mentioned Bach.
The announcement is more likely to provoke push again from human rights orgs, who accuse the nation of investing in sports activities and leisure to divert consideration away from a poor human rights observe file.
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman final 12 months publicly dismissed allegations of “sportswashing” saying his nation’s funding in sport was a part of its 2030 technique to maneuver its financial system away from a reliance on oil.
Bach mentioned the IOC had secured assurances from Saudi Arabia that the video games would respect Olympic values, which assist the apply of sport with out discrimination.
“By partnering with the Saudi NOC we’ve got additionally ensured that the Olympic values are revered, particularly, with regard to the sport titles on the programme, the promotion of gender equality and engagement with the younger viewers, which is embracing esports,” mentioned Bach.
The IOC, which introduced its plans for an Esports Olympics final month, has been participating with the Esports sector since 2018, and ran a pilot Olympic Esports Week occasion in Singapore in June 2023.
The occasion gathered 130 gamers who competed in 10 mix-gender class occasions, with the net video games spanning Tic Tac Bow (archery), WBSC eBASEBALL™: POWER PROS (baseball) Chess.com (chess), Zwift (biking), Simply Dance (dance), Gran Turismo (motorsport), Digital Regatta (crusing), Fortnite (capturing), Digital Taekwondo (taekwondo) and Tennis Conflict (tennis).
