Riyadh, Saudi Arabia—Saudi Arabia’s National Development Fund has announced a program to fund the games and electronic sports sector with 300 million riyals ($89 million) in a bid to increase its contribution to the GDP by creating new job opportunities. The program will be launched by the end of this year.
The program, which will be executed in cooperation with the Saudi Federation for Electronic Sports and the Ignite digital content program, aims to provide products and financing solutions through the development funds and banks affiliated with the Fund in partnership with financial institutions in the private sector, which will directly contribute to providing an integrated economic system.
The Governor of the National Development Fund, Stephen Grove, said this program comes as a first stage within a group of initiatives that the Fund is working on to develop and enable the games and e-sports sector to enhance its role in the economic impact of the Kingdom and diversify the economy into the non-oil sector.