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HT at Esports World Cup 2026 - 3,000 visas in 50 days: How France saved Saudi Arabia’s $400 million bet
How France stepped in to rescue the Esports World Cup after conflict forced it out of Riyadh, protecting Saudi Arabia’s $400m investment.
France was preparing to embrace the FIFA World Cup when an unexpected opportunity came knocking. A little over a month later, Paris was set to host another World Cup, only this time it wasn't for a sport the country is traditionally associated with. The Esports World Cup, after two successful editions in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was left without a home due to safety concerns stemming from the conflict between the United States and Iran in the Middle East. Organisers needed a city that could deliver at short notice without compromising on infrastructure, logistics or fan experience. With a proven track record of hosting big-ticket tournaments, the French capital became the leading candidate. And then came the staggering figure: the Saudi government paid France $250 million to save the day. Additionally, with more than $400 million invested in the tournament, as confirmed to this publication by the owner of a leading global esports company based in India, the event could have been in jeopardy without this paid partnership.
The decision to move the event to Paris was straightforward. Pulling it off, however, was a different challenge altogether. The organisers had just eight weeks to build an event that would bring together more than 2,000 players, process those many visas and then some – only 60 participants are from Paris – and welcome millions of fans over seven weeks. A venue was finalised, logistics were overhauled, and preparations shifted into overdrive.
“Obviously, we needed a solid replacement. We needed a venue that could carry the weight of the EWC. But more than anything, the players needed to be looked after. And we had more than 2,000 of them, plus 1,000-plus support staff. That became our priority. Only once that was taken care of, we could proceed with the logistics,” Mike McCab, COO and deputy CEO of Esports Foundation.
So seamless was the transition that by July 2, the Porte de Versailles looked as if it had always been destined to host the Esports World Cup. The star of the show, and the face of the event, Magnus Carlsen was plastered across billboards and posters all over the city, sharing frames with League of Legends star ‘Faker’ and Cristiano Ronaldo. Fans thronged the venue a day in advance. Karim Benzema, Nick Kyrgios and F1’s Pierre Gasly were already locked in as star attractions. Carlsen, in fact, was scheduled to play an exhibition game with NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo on Day 1. He fell sick and could not attend, but his absence did little to dampen the mood. Inside and outside the venue, the atmosphere was no less than a festival.
“When you have eight weeks, approximately 50 days to plan an event that has more than 2,000 players and millions of fans coming, operates for seven weeks, has 450 broadcast personnel, requires moving stages and designing stages, there are a lot of problems – more than you can imagine. But what we had was an incredible team that turned this into a reality,” says McCab.
“It's unprecedented. There's no other global sporting event in history that has moved within months, never mind weeks. This is truly revolutionary in the world of sports entertainment. It really only happened through partnerships with incredible government officials, the support of publishers and clubs, and the warm welcome from fans in Paris, which made this an incredible event.”
From emergency replacement to a global World Cup?
And yet, it may not be enough. Next year, the EWC will return to Saudi Arabia, meaning that the Paris edition, despite the fanfare, could be nothing more than a one-off contingency plan. What began as an emergency relocation may have accelerated a longer-term ambition: turning the World Cup into a travelling global spectacle, with different cities taking turns to host it while Riyadh remains its permanent home and operational hub. Paris, with its global appeal and enthusiastic reception, has now provided a hard-hitting proof of concept. For organisers, the sudden switch has demonstrated that the tournament can move, adapt and still deliver at scale. The question now is whether Paris was simply a fortunate substitute or the first glimpse of a new era in which the World Cup truly belongs to the world.
“There is a foundational strategy. One, of course, is to globalise the four parts. But at the beginning, we built a product and made sure it was ready to be rotated. What happened here was that we expedited this move. Speaking out loud, it was 2028, 2029, 2030, and then it became 2026. So, we expedited the strategy. Was it planned for 2026? No, but the move was expedited, which tells me it’s ready to move. I think it was ready to move around,” Faisal Bin Homran, chief product officer of the Esports Foundation.
“For now, it’s been super successful. We’ve learned a lot from here as well. But yes, I think we will see the World Cup rotating. We don’t know where or when, but I think, at the end of it, it will be a global IPL of the world, with Riyadh as the hub and the host by default.”
