Saudi’s $70M Esports World Cup Needs More Than Games!

In a few weeks, Riyadh will host the biggest esports tournament ever staged. The 2025 Esports World Cup, with a staggering $70 million prize pool and top international teams competing in more than 25 game titles, is more than just a spectacle. It’s a bold move in Saudi Arabia’s strategy to position itself as a global digital hub.

But national leaders should ask a critical question:

Is all this excitement backed by a solid execution strategy?

From a distance, the tournament looks like a celebration of competitive gaming. But behind the scenes, it's a complex machine of logistics, policy, digital infrastructure, stakeholder coordination, and public narrative management. This kind of complexity demands strong, government-level strategy tools to ensure success.

If we’re serious about transforming Saudi Arabia’s entertainment and digital identity, we need more than flashy announcements. We need real-time clarity, alignment, and operational control. That’s where Strategy360 comes into play.

Why Esports Is Saudi’s Next Strategic Frontier?

Saudi Arabia is steadily investing in the gaming sector under Vision 2030. It recently launched the Esports World Cup Foundation, backed by the Public Investment Fund, to make the Kingdom a home for global gaming. According to PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media Outlook, the global video game and esports market is projected to exceed $323 billion by 2026 (Reuters)(PwC).

The Esports World Cup will run from July 8 to August 24 in Riyadh, featuring tournaments like Valorant, League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, EA Sports FC 24, and PUBG Mobile (Esports.gg). It’s an unprecedented showcase of Saudi’s evolving cultural and economic vision.

But launching big events is risky. Even the most inspiring initiatives can falter without proper execution frameworks. This isn’t a lack of ambition. It’s a need for alignment and visibility across numerous moving parts.

Big Events Need Even Bigger Coordination

Organizing such a mega event demands more than schedules and ticket sales. Cross-ministry collaboration, digital infrastructure rollouts, urban planning, hospitality coordination, and health and safety, all must align. Each team, department, or vendor plays a unique role and needs clear objectives and measurable outcomes.

This challenge is precisely why digital strategy management platforms exist.

Imagine a platform where every government stakeholder can track responsibilities, KPIs, risks, budgets, and progress. Picture dashboards that show real-time insights, automated reports, and alerts for any delays or bottlenecks.

This is what Strategy360 delivers. It provides a full strategic overview for public entities. You can manage not just plans, but performance, in motion.

	Curious how Strategy360 can revolutionize how you lead and monitor strategic events?
Request demo now!

A Scenario Fit for Strategy360

Let’s imagine the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is tasked with ensuring top-tier broadband across esports venues. They need to install infrastructure, test networks, and maintain latency targets for smooth streaming.

In Strategy360, this becomes a strategic initiative. Each objective, like "ensure 99.9 percent network uptime", is linked to daily metrics such as latency under 50 milliseconds. The dashboard visualizes all this. If performance dips, alerts are triggered, notifying responsible teams for swift action.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Tourism might focus on hotel readiness, visitor satisfaction, and cultural programming. Their own initiatives and KPIs sit alongside others in the same system.

Multiply that across all participating ministries, agencies, and partners. Strategy360 joins the dots across the entire ecosystem.

Turning Strategy Into Legacy

These events are never just for one moment. They are stepping stones toward larger goals, economic diversification, national branding, youth engagement, and global influence.

Strategy360 helps tie each initiative to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, like SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure). These links aren’t symbolic. They are quantifiable inside the platform.

By tracking sustainability outcomes alongside performance metrics, Strategy360 empowers decision-makers to show international investors, development agencies, and the public how events deliver tangible global impact.

Given the increasing importance of ESG practices, this capability isn’t just strategic, it’s essential.

	Want to see how your next event can align with Vision 2030 and global sustainability goals using a powerful system?
Request demo now!

Execution Failure Is Still the Biggest Risk

According to Harvard Business Review, more than 70 percent of strategic initiatives fail, not because the strategy was poor, but because execution collapses under complexity and misalignment (Reuters).

Saudi Arabia is building a new global image. That image deserves more than excitement. It deserves platforms that provide real-time insight into strategy execution and the ability to adjust on the fly.

Strategy360 doesn’t merely visualize strategy. It enforces discipline, drives accountability, and gives ministries and agencies the tools to follow through on their promises.

A Personal Word to Leaders

As someone who has worked closely with government decision-makers and tech leaders across the Middle East, I’ve seen brilliant plans fail when they lack structure, measurement, or visibility. With Strategy360, you get all three.

This is not just software. It’s an enabler. It gives teams clarity, purpose, and accountability. It connects vision with action and shows the world what effective governance really means.

Let’s stop planning in isolation. Let’s start executing with intention.

	If you want strategy that lives, breathes, and adapts with action, Strategy360 can make it real.
Request demo now!

References

1.     PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook

2.     Esports World Cup returns to Riyadh with a record $70 million prize pool

3.     Valorant officially joins the Esports World Cup

4.     EA Sports FC 24 joins the Esports World Cup

5.     PUBG Mobile World Cup 2025 details

6.     Harvard Business Review on strategy execution failure