International gaming and esports company Savvy Games Group (Savvy) announced Monday that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with mega city project NEOM.
Financial terms of this deal were not disclosed, but it is important to note that both NEOM and Savvy Games Group are both owned and operated by the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Under the terms of this new cooperative agreement, NEOM and Savvy will work together to streamline the process of supporting gaming startups in Saudi Arabia through both groups’ incubator programs including the Savvy Nine66 Incubator and the NEOM Level Up Accelerator. The pipeline for this is straightforward: those startups that graduate from the Savvy program will then move into a new stage of acceleration and support from NEOM’s program. Both of these programs are part of a broader initiative by the Saudi Arabian government to grow the gaming ecosystem and create jobs as part of the National Gaming and Esports Strategy under Saudi Vision 2030.
Savvy claims that its Nine66 Incubator Program has already “helped early-stage studios validate prototypes, build foundational capabilities, and prepare for investor engagement.” Likewise, NEOM claims that its Level Up Accelerator has “grown into a multiphase platform supporting more than 45 Saudi startups, deploying 15 investments, and achieving a 100% survival rate within its portfolio – outperforming many global benchmarks.” Further, the group claims it has been working with “17 international partners offering publishing and support, and has “enabled more than 170 jobs and facilitated a historic milestone: the Kingdom’s first international publishing deal for a domestic gaming start-up – signed between Fahy Studio and UK-based publisher Kwalee.”
As funding for both companies comes from the Saudi Arabian government and its multi-billion-dollar sovereign wealth fund, it’s tough to unravel whether any actual money changes hands in this deal, and these groups are generally charged with working together on the government’s overall goals for Vision 20230, which puts in place mandates to create new revenue streams that are not tied to the sale of energy products such as gas and oil, foster growth in new sectors (tourism, gaming, esports, entertainment, etc.), and create new future facing jobs in emerging sectors.
You can learn more about the Savvy Nine66 Incubator at www.savvyacademy.sa and the NEOM Level Up Accelerator at www.neomlevelup.game.
NEOM is a mega city project (or a future-leaning, technology rich community, if you will), and an important part of the Saudi Vision 2030 government program launched by the country to diversify its revenue beyond oil, by creating businesses and projects that focus on new income streams such as gaming, entertainment, esports, tourism, and more. The initiative is the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince HRH Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. Other projects under the auspices of Vision 2023 and the PIF fund include the Esports World Cup Foundation, Esports Nations Cup, Savvy Games Group, and another city project – Qiddiya.
Savvy serves as the main pillar of the PIF’s investments in gaming and esports; In addition to controlling all of the government’s investments in gaming companies around the world, it is also home to mobile game maker Scopely, Japanese game developer SNK Corporation, and ESL FACEIT Group, the parent company of ESL, DreamHack, and FACEIT. It will also own and operate Electronic Arts when the transaction to buy the publisher closes…
A New York Times report in November 2025 suggested that PIF was running low on the cash needed for future investments.
Properties owned or tied to the Saudi Arabian government are frequently accused of helping the government engage in so-called “sports washing,” or using various forms of sport and entertainment to cover up its record on human rights, women’s rights, LGTBQ+ rights, military actions in Yemen, and more. These and other criticisms are actively highlighted by international watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.