Esports Lights Up Paris For The Other World Cup
The Esports World Cup (EWC) has officially broken its borders, writes Bayo Nike.
In a move that shocked the gaming industry less than two-months before the opening matches, the world’s largest esports festival packed its bags and left its permanent home in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, due to regional tensions.
This week the tournament officially kicked off at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.
Paris is now the first host city outside Saudi Arabia to welcome the massive event, accelerating a global rotation plan that organizers originally intended to roll out much later. For a tournament backed by Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, testing the waters in a Western cultural hub is a major milestone.
Ralf Reichert, CEO of the Esports Foundation, captured the weight of the move perfectly:
“Riyadh helped turn the Esports World Cup into a global phenomenon. It is the home of EWC.
“But this year, we’re excited to bring EWC to Paris for its first edition outside Saudi Arabia. Paris has hosted some of the world’s biggest sporting events and is one of the great global capitals of sport, culture, and entertainment.,” he told iGamingFuture today.
Paris is indeed no stranger to major esports events.
The city has previously hosted competitions including the League of Legends World Championship Final, the BLAST.tv Paris Major for Counter-Strike and several Rocket League events.
Those tournaments established France as one of Europe’s leading esports markets, little wonder why Paris is a natural choice for the World Cup’s first international edition.
The scale of the 2026 festival remains staggering despite the late change of scenery.
The event features a record breaking US$75 million (£56.09m) total prize pool, compared to last year’s US$60 million (£44.86m) prize pot.
More than 2,000 elite players have arrived in France to represent over 200 premier clubs from 100 different countries. They are competing in 25 separate tournaments across 24 popular video game titles, including major games like Valorant, Counter-Strike 2, and Dota 2.
This international move has created economic ripples across the sports betting and entertainment markets.
Sportsbooks like GG.BET and Betway have responded by expanding their live, in-play options to cover distinct game events across the seven weeks of non-stop broadcasting.
What is happening in Paris proves that esports has moved past its origins as a niche hobby to become a global spectator sport.
According to the Esports World Cup Foundation, the 2025 tournament attracted more than 750 million viewers worldwide and was broadcast by 97 media partners in 35 languages.
DAZN, one of the tournament’s media partners last year, is again streaming the entire event free to audiences worldwide.
Commenting on the partnership, DAZN Group CEO Shay Segev said: “We are excited to bring this competition to fans worldwide free-to-view for the third year in a row and to continue cementing our leading position in sports entertainment.”
For now, it’s unclear if Paris, The City of Light, will remain a future host.
While the premier summer club tournament has moved to the French capital, the Esports World Cup Foundation has confirmed that the nation-based Esports Nations Cup will be held back in Riyadh this November.
And the arrangement shows that while the tournament is expanding internationally, Saudi Arabia will continue to play a central role in the competition’s future.
