According to Saudi state owned media, the Saudi Arabian cabinet has named His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister (HRH Crown Prince MBS) of Saudi Arabia, as the Chair of a new Board of Trustees for Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF).
At a Saudi Arabia government Cabinet session held in Riyadh on Tuesday led by HRH Crown Prince MBS, an agenda item noted that the Cabinet would establish a Board of Trustees for the Esports World Cup Foundation for a term of three years.
The EWCF has claimed since its inception that it is a non-profit that is not owned or operated by the Saudi Arabian government, but rather funded through a sports grant from the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF). With the appointment of HRH Crown Prince MBS as the chair of its board of trustees that claim becomes more difficult to make. The EWCF said it would reveal who its board members were when it launched on Oct. 23, 2023, but that information was never released to the public.
This news entangles the Saudi Arabian government and its de facto ruler HRH Crown Prince MBS even more deeply into the country’s esports endeavors; HRH Crown Prince MBS is already the Chairman of the Board at PIF-owned gaming company Savvy Games Group, which fully owns and operates ESL FACEIT Group (EFG). In addition to its efforts inside the country helping with the production of the Esports World Cup, EFG also operates some of the biggest Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 competitions on the international competitive calendar.
In case you are not familiar with Savvy Games Group, it owns EFG, which in turn is home to ESL, the esports platform FACEIT, and remnants of its Esports Engine acquisition from Vindex. It also owns and operates gaming festival and esports competition company DreamHack.
The news comes on the heels of another PIF-backed Saudi Arabian project buying a major chunk of the esports ecosystem this week, when it was announced that mega-city project Qiddiya had fully acquired Evolution Championship Series organizer RTS.
Projects backed or owned by the Saudi Arabian government such as Qiddiya, Esports World Cup, and now Evo, are frequently criticized for helping the government engage in “sports washing,” or using various forms of entertainment to cover up its record on human rights, women’s rights, LGTBQ+ rights, military actions in Yemen, and more. These and other criticisms have been highlighted by international watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.