This year’s Esports World Cup is planning to move from Riyadh to Paris amid the war in the Middle East.
The third edition of the Esports World Cup was originally slated to take place between July and August 2026 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Over the past week, the event’s organizers have informed stakeholders across the Esports World Cup ecosystem that this year’s iteration of the event will instead take place in Paris. GamesBeat has confirmed the move with three individuals who work in the esports space and were privy to the Esports World Cup’s communications with stakeholders, all of whom requested anonymity to avoid damaging their business relationships with the event. An Esports World Cup representative declined to comment on the event’s plans to move to Paris this year.
The Esports World Cup’s move to Paris reflects uncertainty around travel in the Middle East amid the ongoing conflict in Iran. During last year’s iteration of the Esports World Cup, over 2,500 esports players and team staff flew into Riyadh. With airlines cancelling flights to the Middle East over safety concerns, any large-scale event in the region faces a significant risk of cancellations or delays jeopardizing the production.
“In recent years major events have been impacted by events like the COVID pandemic and Ukraine conflict, and so moving/rescheduling/cancelling them isn’t as unusual as some may think,” said Malph Minns, the managing director of the sports marketing agency Strive Sponsorship, in a written interview with GamesBeat, citing examples such as the 2022 Champions League Final’s shift from St. Petersburg to Paris and the cancellation of Formula 1 events in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in 2026.
The Esports World Cup has always intended to move from Riyadh to other host cities. Following the first iteration of the Esports World Cup in 2024, Esports Foundation chief executive officer Ralf Reichert flagged country hosting fees as one of the event’s most promising future revenue streams. At the moment, it’s unclear whether the government of France or any other entity associated with the city of Paris is paying for the right to host this year’s Esports World Cup.
Sponsorships and advertising are another major revenue stream for the Esports World Cup. Past iterations of the event have been sponsored by prominent brands, with some observers framing these sponsorships as “soft power” deals intended to make the event’s host nation look favorably upon the advertiser’s business dealings in the region. Because the Esports World Cup is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, critics have frequently framed the event as a form of sportswashing intended to improve the nation’s global image.
The Esports World Cup’s move to Paris is unlikely to impact any of the event’s pre-existing sponsorship deals. After the geopolitical instability of the past six years, events like the Esports World Cup typically have provisions in their sponsorship agreements specifically to address this type of situation.
Some sponsors could even benefit from the move. Many of the Esports World Cup’s brand partners already maintain large European operations, and relocating the event to Paris could give them access to an in-person audience that would have been harder to reach in Riyadh.
Brands whose primary interest is the Saudi market, however, could be more likely to seek replacement value or additional promotional rights in future events.
“The reality for the Esports World Cup is that most of the fanbase is online, and so the value of the location of the event is reduced, which means the impact of any move of location is likely limited,” Minns said.
The Esports World Cup is far from the only global gaming event scheduled in Riyadh this year. In addition to the Esports World Cup, the Saudi capital is home to other planned gaming industry events, like the Esports Nations Cup in November 2026 and the Kingdom of Gaming conference scheduled for December 2026. At the moment, the conflict in the Middle East shows no signs of subsiding. If it continues through the end of the year, the travel and safety considerations around this summer’s esports championship will still be in play in November and December.