Savvy Games Group Leaders Make Goodwill Trip to China

Savvy Games Group Vice Chair HRH Prince Faisal and CEO Brian Ward meet with Chinese officials and industry stakeholders

Chinese esports tournament operator VSPO announced on Tuesday that Saudi Esports Federation Chairman and Savvy Games Group Vice Chairman HRH Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud and Savvy Games Group CEO Brian Ward recently led a senior business delegation to China, accompanied by leaders from VSPO including Co-Founder and CEO Dino Ying and Co-Founder and CFO Danny Tang.

According to the announcement, the goal of the visit was to strategize about the upcoming Esports World Cup event in July, to further strengthen commercial partnerships with Chinese businesses in the esports and gaming sectors, and to share its vision for Saudi Arabia as a global gaming and esports destination as part of the government’s Vision 2030 roadmap. 

Prince Faisal and Ward made goodwill stops to meet with government officials and game developers and publishers in several major cities including Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu. In 2023, Savvy, a gaming and esports company backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, invested $265M USD into VSPO, becoming its largest international investor.  

“We learned so much from this trip,” said HRH Prince Faisal in a release. “We will work with VSPO to connect global esports markets and build Saudi Arabia into the hub of the global esports and gaming market. Through long-term investment and capital deployment, we will build a sustainable and profitable global esports ecosystem.”

“China’s position as the largest esports market, with over 400 million fans and significant industry revenue, underlines the valuable role the Chinese market will play in supporting the continued development of Saudi Arabia’s thriving gaming and esports sector,” added Ward. “This visit provided a valuable opportunity to strengthen Savvy’s connection with our partners at VSPO, as well as building our insights and network within one of the world’s foremost games and esports markets.”

Savvy Games Group is a gaming and esports company owned and operated by the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. Savvy owns a number of esports-related operations including ESL FACEIT Group, which is composed of tournament organizer ESL, tournament platform FACEIT, esports production company Esports Engine, and esports and gaming analytics firm Vindex.