The esports scene is no stranger to strategy. After all, it’s the nature of competitive gaming. No matter the game, there will always be new ways to navigate across a map, capture the objective or create innovative ways to use smoke grenades. However, it’s not too often that entire regions are pushed at once, which is exactly what’s happening in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Within the last few years, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) area has seen unprecedented levels of development. There’s a new Saudi Esports Federation, Esports World Cup, Olympic Esports Series, the formation of ‘superteams’ and, most recently, the UAE opened up its jurisdiction and has started handing out licences to operators. As many of us know, even the smallest pebble can alter an ecosystem, so what will these changes mean for the global esports industry?
Although it’s only early days, it’s clear that, even from a legal perspective, the MENA region is serious about this. When discussing the new licences, the UAE General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) defines gaming operators as: “Entities operating internet gaming platforms, sports wagering and land-based gaming facilities, as well as the lottery and lottery retailers.” Looking at the order these are listed in, perhaps it’s not too speculative to wonder if this also reflects the market’s priorities. As GG.Bet tells Gambling Insider: “It’s important to keep the country’s cultural values in mind. Until recently, gambling could be punishable by a jail sentence of up to two years in the UAE. I expect this strictness to be reflected in the regulations for user access, which will pose a challenge for the esports betting world, particularly as the main audience is quite young.” The GG.Bet team continues: “This will also influence marketing regulations: They’ll be even tougher than they are, say, in the UK and complying with them will be tricky.”
THE ROLE OF MARKETING
As the market grows, the demands for marketing will too. One of the more recent developments, the Esports World Cup, will no doubt be a key pillar in this. Previously hosted under the name Gamers8 esports festival, this was rebranded this summer and relaunched alongside the new licensing system in the neighbouring UAE. The ‘inaugural’ Esports World Cup was held this year between 3 July and 25 August in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The format was rather unique and included 23 tournaments across a variety of games, including Tekken 8, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) and Fortnite. “It makes sense that a type of entertainment which has become popular all over the world would find its footing here as well,” GG.Bet reflects. “The region has been in need of a gaming industry for a long time.” A total of 30 teams were invited to the Esports World Cup, representing Europe, North America, Asia, South America and the Middle East. There was even a Club Support Program, which provided financial aid to ensure players could make the trip.
With two-thirds of the teams coming from Europe and North America, it was a great opportunity to showcase how serious the MENA region was with its entry into esports. “The Gulf countries are becoming much more open to foreign investment and tourism,” she continues. “All this is stirring up interest among bookmaking brands who work in esports.” GG.Bet is no stranger to this, either. Not only does the company operate an online casino and sports betting business, but the brand is also partnered with two of the teams who attended the Esports World Cup: Team Vitality and Natus Vincere – the latter of which were crowned the winner of the CS2 tournament. The overall winning team, though, awarded with over $7m in prize pool money, was Team Falcons. This might not mean much to you yet, but this is a Saudi-based esports team that has already drawn criticism about its formation. This raises a natural question: How could creating a team cause any kind of controversy?
Team Falcons was co-founded in 2017 by Mossad “Msdossary” Al-Dossary, an accomplished esports player who had previously won world titles in Fifa. The team continued to grow quietly for a few years, but when esports exploded in popularity after 2020, management knew this was an opportunity. Within a few years, Team Falcons had bought some of the best players in the world and assembled ‘superteams’ across a range of games, including CS2, Apex Legends, Overwatch and Dota 2. For some sense of scale, the current CS2 team for Team Falcons is Snappi, Magisk, maden, dupreeh, s1mple and zonic. Combined, these players have total career winnings of several million dollars. If the term ‘superteams’ seems like an exaggeration, each of these players are considered the best in the world at what they do – dupreeh alone is the most decorated player in Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) history, zonic is considered one of the best coaches in esports and the only times s1mple wasn’t crowned the best player of the year was when he came runner up.
The countries of the Middle East are ambitious and have their sights set on becoming a gaming and esports hub
HEAVY INVESTMENT
Now, considering this kind of scale with Team Falcons having at least 10 rosters across multiple games and events, the first thing that comes to mind is how a new organisation could possibly afford to sign so much world talent in one fell swoop. While the team has been very tight-lipped about its financial situation, there have been open rumours for years about its connections with the Saudi royal family. This is where the scepticism comes in. How ethical is it to form superteams out of world-class talent, just before the MENA region begins to open up sports betting opportunities? Well, according to GG.Bet, it might not be about this side of sports betting at all. “The question here isn’t just about the possibility of attracting users from the UAE, which is definitely important too as they’ll be ready to go big when it comes to gaming,” Kamenetska explains. “Licensing is an opportunity for brands to be represented at major esports events. All in all, successfully expanding the iGaming market to the UAE could be the catalyst for opening up regulations in other MENA countries.” This is an important point to remember when discussing the UAE market passing legislation and awarding its licences. While some of these licences will naturally go towards casinos that are hoping to attract footfall traffic, such as the Wynn Al Marjan Island resort, it will also grant the brands themselves a regulated presence at events. You’d be forgiven if you thought the Esports World Cup was the end of it. But it seems it’s only the beginning when it comes to events planned in the MENA region.
According to GG.Bet: “The countries of the Middle East are ambitious and have their sights set on becoming a gaming and esports hub: In the UAE, they’re opening centres and setting up gaming and esports academies; Saudi Arabia hosted the EWC and signed a 12-year contract to host the Olympic Esports Series; and Jordan is hosting conferences and working to develop gaming.” The Olympics is a particularly powerful initiative in the lens of sports betting too, because it automatically legitimises any gambling on the sports themselves, at least in the eye of the average player. It’s not a random event they’ve never heard of before, and the Esports Series is in direct partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
On signing the deal, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal, Minister of Sport and President of the Saudi Arabian Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said: “As a ‘first’ ever Esports Olympic Games, obviously there is still much to consider and plan with the IOC. But we are committed to hosting a special event that respects and celebrates the Olympic values while boldly seizing the momentum to drive esports forward with the international platform the sport and its athletes deserve. The world will have an open invitation to join us in 2025 and celebrate this moment together.” All of this is part of the Vision 2030 plan, which was set into motion to diversify the region in terms of economy, social aspects and culture. According to their reports, 67% of Saudi citizens “consider themselves to be gamers,” so it makes it very easy for these esports events to be organised, populated and supported. While esports experienced relatively slow growth at the start of its lifecycle in the US and Europe, the MENA region is more than prepared to lead the initiative when it comes to major international events. In his speech, Al Faisal even emphasised that “our Kingdom has become a global hub for professional esports” and “this is a natural next step for our young athletes, our country and the global esports community.” Each of these events foster opportunities for brands to gain exposure and recognition, even if the events themselves are hosted in countries which forbid citizens from gambling. As is the nature of esports being played online, so too are they streamed across the internet to an international audience. An argument could be made that the status of MENA citizens not being able to gamble doesn’t even factor into the strength of a gambling licence from this region, due to the worldwide appeal of esports. The people born and raised in the UAE might not be able to wager on esports matches, but the brands and bookmakers will be able to advertise themselves during the UAE-based events to an audience of potentially hundreds of thousands of other viewers who can.
“All this is stirring up interest among bookmaking brands who work in esports,” GG.Bet says. “I believe there are already a number of large brands who are considering GCGRA licences for themselves.” After looking at all of the initiatives being pushed across MENA, you can hardly blame them either. Even if most of the big events this year have been in the neighbouring country of Saudi Arabia, the UAE isn’t one to be left behind. There are already rumours of ‘Esports Island’ being built in Abu Dhabi, which would include a workspace tower, a resort hotel, training spaces and even an area that could host major events. The current area for this rumoured haven is Yas Island, which is renowned for also hosting the annual Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix. With this in mind, the marketing opportunities under a regulated sports betting market on Yas Island suddenly become very attractive. “For casinos and bookmakers, a GCGRA licence is an opportunity to be represented in a developing market with favourable taxation.” GG.Bet concludes. “That is, of course, if it’s the same for the gaming industry. And this is the first challenge that companies might come up against in the UAE. It’s quite likely that policies for companies entering the market will be strict, with high tax rates being used to ‘weed’ some of them out, so that only very large international players can gain a foothold.”
So it seems the UAE beginning to offer GCGRA licences is more than just allowing companies to open up land-based casinos in the country, and this potential is no doubt strongest in the MENA esports scene. If the new licensing system manages to blend well alongside the contrasting cultural values, it has the potential to grow in scale, especially with Saudi Arabia just next door. This will no doubt encourage more events, which in turn invites more opportunities for brands and markets for players abroad to wager on, and the synergy will only continue to build – both inside and beyond the UEA and MENA regions. It might only be early days for the moment, but these developments could have a major impact on the global esports scene. It will certainly be worth keeping an eye on, or as the esports players would say, ‘Good Luck and Have Fun in Next’.
Additional analysis
With extensive investment across vast segments of the esports industry, UAE has shown its long-term commitment to the growth of esports. The UAE has also formed a new commercial gaming authority called the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority last year, which has been assigned exclusive jurisdiction to regulate, license and supervise all commercial gaming activities and facilities at a national level in the country. However, we don’t yet know what the regulatory framework for esports may look like; but we do know that regulating gambling industries and instituting licensing systems requires extensive work. Nonetheless, very exciting times lie ahead.
Karl Rönn, Sales Manager at Abios, part of Kambi