The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), headed by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), has bought a stake worth $265 million in the Chinese esports company VSPO, backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd, as he continues his push in the gaming market.
Saudi has been expanding its investments in the gaming industry, taking stakes in Japan’s Nintendo Co and Swedish gaming group Embracer last year.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in September last year has laid out a $38 billion strategy for Savvy Games Group, with the ambitious strategy of aiming to make Saudi “the ultimate global hub for the games and esports sector by 2030”
Saudi Arabia’s interest in gaming and eSports comes from the very top, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said to be an avid “Call of Duty” player.
In January, the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund launched the Savvy Gaming Group, which acquired top eSports firms ESL Gaming and FACEIT in deals reportedly worth a total of $1.5 billion.
Next year, Riyadh will host the Global Esports Games, billed as the world’s “flagship” competitive eSports event.
Despite the domestic and global difficult economic crisis and its involvement in Yemen’s war, Saudi Crown Prince MBS spent an insane amount of money in one game or company’s ecosystem.
Dot eSports revealed that MBS was one of the biggest spenders, affirming that he has already spent more than $6,000 on The International 2020 Battle Pass.
Over the last three years, he spent a combined $69,494 and counting on the Battle Pass alone, with $42,100 of that coming from 2018. He has been the top contributor in each of those years and set a record by reaching Level 175,000 in 2017.
MBS has been active on Dota since 2011 and has played over 10,000 matches in Dota, totalling a 5,772-5,467 win/loss record—a 51-percent win rate.
His play-time is private, but at the last time of recording, they had put 9,046 hours into Dota, along with nearly 550 hours in Team Fortress 2.
The new findings sparked large criticism on social media, where online activists accused the gamer prince of being also addicted to cocaine.
Others linked his brutal crackdown in the Kingdom with his addiction to video games.
