Qiddiya City Club Program Details Unearthed

Credit: Qiddiya City

The Esports Advocate has learned early details on the Qiddiya City Club Program, or Qiddiya Club Program, a financial incentives program to entice esports organizations and gaming companies to move into the Saudi Arabian government-funded mega city project. Funded by the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, the city project is 28 miles or 45 kilometers from the capital city of Riyadh, and promises to be a tourist destination featuring 25 districts containing entertainment (themed amusement parks and race tracks, esports stadiums, headquarters for esports organizations and game companies, spaces for music concerts), sports, culture, mixed-use areas, residential communities, nature, and a business district.

The goal of the project is to create an international tourist destination that will bring millions of visitors to the country, create local jobs, and generate revenue for the government that is not driven by petro dollars. Part of the Vision 2030 plan, Qiddiya City has a total budget of $350B USD to build 120 resorts and hotels, more than 400 attractions, 160K residential locations, 12 branded theme parks, 43 sports facilities, 275 rides, an esports and gaming district, and more. Once completed, Qiddiya City hopes to attract more than 48M visitors on an annual basis.

Officially announced in 2017, what began as a large-scale theme park project was expanded into a destination city in 2018, with construction kicking off in 2019. The project is far from complete, but two of its theme park projects—Six Flags and Aquarabia—are scheduled to open sometime in 2025, with a “gradual opening” of the gaming and esports district to take place between 2026-2028. All construction will be completed in 2050, according to the Saudi government.

Qiddiya City Gaming & Esports District

The aim of this part of the project is to create what Qiddiya calls the “global epicenter of gaming and esports” by building out esports arenas, esports team facilities, bootcamp locations, and regional headquarters for international organizations. Qiddiya also wants game development studios, publishers, and consumer brands to make the city their home in Saudi Arabia.

For esports, the play to get organizations to open up shop in the region is to entice them financially— just as the Saudi government did with the Esports World Cup Club Support Program, hence the creation and implementation of the Qiddiya Club Program. 

The goal of the program is to bring the biggest esports competitions in the world to Saudi Arabia, to build out its local ecosystem, grow local talent, and ultimately serve as an international hub and destination for the biggest organizations and competitions in the world. It also wants to be a regional/international hub for game servers and streaming platforms.

Ultimately, Qiddiya is working on long-term partnerships with more than 10 tournament organizers and broadcasters, more than 30 esports organizations, more than 25 game studios & publishers, and more than 30 endemic consumer brands, according to information obtained by TEA.

While listed as “subject to change,” Qiddiya will continue its marketing blitz at some of the biggest esports and gaming events in 2024 including the upcoming EVO (July 19-21), ChinaJoy in Shanghai later this month, IEM Cologne and Gamescom in August, PAX West and Tokyo Game Show in September, MPL MENA S6 and MPL Indonesia S14, M6 World Championship in Kuala Lumpur and DreamHack Stockholm in November, and EVO International in December.

The Program

The Qiddiya Club program is aiming to bring in a minimum of 15 esports organizations in what it is calling Wave 1 for 2024, with two teams from Southeast Asia, two from South Korea, two from China, one from Japan, one from Africa, two from the Middle East, two from North America, two from South America, and two from Europe. The likely candidates will be organizations that are already part of the Esports World Cup Club Support Program, so Wave 1 could include all 30 of those organizations.

Supported financially by Qiddiya, all of the selected clubs will be required to set up offices in a strategic partner campus in Riyadh (in the stc Group’s STC Square) by the end of H1 2025—they will sign an initial five-year contract (running from 2025 to the end of 2029) with an option to extend an additional five years (2030-2034). Selected organizations will be given “founding partner status,” gaining access to multiple incentive programs, and having direct input in shaping the future of the Club Partner Program. Wave 2 is already being planned to add additional organizations in the second half of 2025.

While TEA does not have information on just how much money will be dispersed through the Club Program, we do know how it will be broken down for participants. Prior to the completion of facilities in the actual Qiddiya City, teams will be given “premium office space and esports facilities in Riyadh” in STC Square (from 2025-2027); from 2028-2029, organizations will move from Riyadh to Qiddiya into facilities that they will help custom design with Qiddiya.

From 2025-2029 they will be eligible for subsidies to pay for administrative staff in Riyadh and Qiddiya City, and from 2025-2027, they will also be eligible for subsidies to bring select pro teams to Riyadh for bootcamps. There will also be a program to help organizations secure regional sponsorships and to pay for the “establishment process” in Saudi Arabia. An annual marketing budget of $9.5M will be available for organizations in the program from 2024-2029 as well, and Qiddiya plans a financial rewards/awards program for organizations that show an “outstanding marketing contribution” from 2025-2029.

Accepted organizations will work with Qiddiya to create an 800 – 1,500 square meters (8,611 – 16,145 square feet) space fully customized to represent their brand, co-located next to other brands and organizations in the city. The facilities, which will be near esports venues, will contain areas for fan engagement, retail and commercial activities, content production, scrim rooms, physical training and wellness areas, dining, residential spaces for players and staff, recreational spaces, and administrative offices.

Teams will be required to hire executives (a total of six) for Riyadh including a MENA head, MENA operations lead, MENA marketing lead, and a MENA community & events manager while located at STC Square. Several other optional operational roles can be included as part of the incentive plan. When teams finally move into Qiddiya, they will receive increased incentives and support to hire six additional full-time employees.

It is important to note that these partnerships have some mandatory requirements in order to participate:

• Refrain from participating in competing incentive programs (2024-2029).
• Establish a legal business entity in KSA (by H1 2025).
• Generate year-on-year revenues locally (2025-2029).
• Contribute to Qiddiya’s development of esports academy offerings.
• Employ six administrative full-time employees for STC Square (by H1 2025).
• Scale team to 12 administrative full-time employees based in Qiddiya (at launch).
• Host professional esports teams regularly at STC Square (2025-2027).
• Permanently relocate one professional esports team to Qiddiya City (2028-2029).
• Sign local team with Saudi Arabian nationality (by H1 2026).
• Establish an official SoMe channel in Arabic language.
• Contribute to Qiddiya’s content production (on-site and remote).
• Support Qiddiya with physical brand activations every year (2025-2029).
• Create marketing to promote the Qiddiya/Qiddiya Club Program (2025-2029).
• Promote the Qiddiya Club Program on STC Play SoMe platform (2025-2027).
• Allow Qiddiya to use your brand in marketing.
• Bring your club management to STC Square annually (2025-2027).
• Arrange a minimum of two weeks of community events at STC Square annually (2025-2027).

Teams can also present their own individually defined bonus commitments to Qiddiya City organizers for approval.

The Process

Qiddiya hopes to have the entire selection process signed, sealed, and delivered by Q3 2024, with a massive marketing blitz planned for sometime in Q4 2024. The timeline for all of this began on May 31, with the launch of the application process, where potential partnered esports organizations (we assume those already in the Esports World Cup Club Support Program) were sent an information package detailing the new program.

On or around June 5, interested organizations responded and were invited to a special Discord server to ask Q&A questions, which were answered on or around June 7 – 8. Following that applicants were asked to submit deliverables via email (basically a hype video, background information on the organization, plans for the region, etc.) by July 12. The next milestone date is July 19, where written notification is being sent to clubs that will not make it into the selection process, followed by the launch of a finance and legal assessment process (FLA), which will have a deadline of Aug. 2. On Aug. 23, clubs will receive written notifications if they have been selected or rejected based on the FLA, with accepted clubs will receive meeting requests to give a presentation and receive a draft partnership contract for review. From Aug. 26 – 29, clubs will make the final pitch on why they should be selected at an in-person or remote meeting with Qiddiya advisors. Sometime in Q3, Qiddiya and selected clubs will sign a long-form partnership agreement, and in Q4 those partnerships will be announced under the “Qiddiya Club Program.”

Overseeing this entire process will be the Qiddiya Program Management team, which includes former Heroic founder, CEO & Chairman Joachim Haraldsen; former FUJITSU Business Manager Amr Alshawan, and former Heroic COO & co-founder Stian Friisvold. They will be supported by the Qiddiya Reference Group, comprised of Qiddiya Strategic Director Arnab Bhattacharya; former Team Liquid Chief Business Development Officer and current Qiddiya Advisory Board Chairman for Esports & Gaming Mike Milanov; CHAPT3R founder/CCO Rachel Brill; Qiddiya Gaming & Esports Board Advisor, VSPO Co-Founder and Chief Content Officer Xie Fan; Pitchside Sport & Entertainment CEO and Qiddiya Commercial Partnerships & Sponsorship lead Ben Martin; and former Managing Corporate Officer, Head of Esports, Head of Master Planning Office at Capcom, Shigenori Araki.

Executives who made the trip to the Esports World Cup will no doubt be holding behind-closed-doors-meetings with Qiddiya leadership during the event and ahead of the New Global Sport Conference on Aug. 24-25 at the Four Season Hotel in Riyadh.

Qiddiya City, the Esports World Cup, and the mega-city project NEOM are all backed by the Saudi Arabian government as part of its plan to transform the company’s economy and slowly move away from generating revenue from oil. Supporting its gaming and entertainment projects is the government-owned Savvy Games Group and its subsidiary ESL FACEIT Group, which owns and operates Esports Engine, ESL, FACEIT, and DreamHack.

The Saudi Arabian government has been under fire for what critics call “sports washing,” using sports and other forms of entertainment as a cover for its poor record on human rights, women’s rights, and military actions in Yemen, among other things, highlighted by international watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

In tandem, esports organizations from Europe, North America, and South America have been strongly criticized by the international esports community for their perceived hypocrisy in taking part in the ongoing Esports World Cup (running until Aug. 25 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) while also claiming to support women’s rights, equality, diversity, and support for the LGBTQ+ community.

Team Liquid, the only organization attending the Esports World Cup that has spoken publicly about it, is being allowed to wear jerseys bearing a rainbow, the international symbol for pride, though there has been some pushback on that as well—with critics claiming the gesture by organizers is an empty one—and proponents say it is a great first step.

Editor’s note: We inadvertently listed July 12 twice in paragraph two under “The Process” section of this article, when the second date was supposed to be “July 19.” We have corrected the story to reflect that. We also listed Evo in Las Vegas  as “recently concluded” when it takes place later this month. We apologize for the error and any confusion this may have caused readers.