The Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee (SOPC) have mutually agreed to finish their cooperation on the Olympic Esports Video games initiative, which was being constructed alongside the Esports World Cup Basis (EWCF).
The Olympic Esports Video games venture, which was first introduced as a part of a 2024 partnership between the IOC and SOPC, was created to deliver aggressive gaming nearer to the normal Olympics and bridge conventional sports activities with a quickly rising on-line viewers.
The collaboration additionally concerned the Esports World Cup Basis, which has been central to Saudi Arabia’s broader push into gaming and esports via large-scale investments and occasions, most notably the annual Esports World Cup.
IOC and SOPC Assertion on Olympic Esports Video games
In a joint assertion, the IOC and SOPC confirmed that that they had “mentioned the idea of the Olympic Esports Video games at size consistent with the partnership they introduced in 2024.” Nonetheless, after current conferences involving the Esports World Cup Basis, all events mutually agreed that they are going to finish their cooperation on the Olympic Esports Video games. On the similar time, each events are “dedicated to pursuing their very own esports ambitions on separate paths.”
The IOC added that it “will develop a brand new method to the Olympic Esports Video games, taking the suggestions from the ‘Pause and Replicate’ course of under consideration, and pursue a brand new partnership mannequin.”
In accordance with the assertion, this subsequent section will purpose “to higher match the Olympic Esports Video games to the long-term ambitions of the Olympic Motion and to unfold the alternatives introduced by the Olympic Esports Video games extra extensively, with the target of getting the inaugural Video games as quickly as attainable.”
Whereas the IOC appears to be like to decipher how esports matches throughout the Olympic framework, Saudi Arabia is quick increasing its personal gaming ecosystem independently via tasks just like the Esports World Cup and its targets for Imaginative and prescient 2030.
In 2025, the EWCF introduced that the inaugural Esports Nations Cup would take place in 2026, with one of the best esports professionals on this planet representing their nations reasonably than endemic esports organisations.
In some ways, this might mimic the Olympic setup, with gamers representing their international locations.
