News

Saudi Arabia Launches Summer 2024 eSports World Cup

Football megastar Ronaldo was in attendance, and was honored to meet His Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Published

3 years ago

October 24, 2023

saudi arabia launches summer 2024 esports world cup

On Monday, October 23, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia announced the launch of the eSports World Cup. The event will be held annually from Summer 2024 in the Kingdom’s capital, Riyadh.

The eSports World Cup is the largest of its kind and will help to consolidate the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s position as an international pro gaming hub. The event will include games across a wide range of genres, with players competing for the largest pool of prize money ever to be issued at this type of event.

According to Arab News, the newly announced World Cup should boost the Saudi Arabian GDP by over 13 billion USD while creating nearly 40,000 new jobs.

saudi arabia esports world cup ronaldo

During the launch, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Portuguese football legend Cristiano Ronaldo, who was invited to the event. The star shared several images on social media and said he was honored to meet the Crown Prince.

The eSports World Cup launch also allowed Saudi Arabian officials to announce the establishment of the eSports World Cup Foundation, a non-profit organization to boost sustainability and cement the Kingdom’s place as a global gaming hub.

Also Read: Top 10 Best Video Games Set In The Middle East

The Saudi government is currently going to great lengths to promote the growth of the local gaming industry through its National Gaming and Esports Strategy.

Saudi Arabia is already home to the MENA’s leading gaming industry. The country has around 21 million gamers (nearly 58% of the population) and is the 19th biggest gaming market in the world, with a projected value of $2.6 billion by 2027 — a growth rate of 7.5% per year.

News

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 9 And Ultra 2 Specs Leak Ahead Of Unpacked

An 800mAh Ultra 2 battery and a switch from Exynos to Qualcomm silicon headline the expected changes for Samsung’s next smartwatches.

Published

3 days ago

July 15, 2026

Nour Nasir

samsung's galaxy watch 9 and ultra 2 specs leak ahead of unpacked

Samsung’s next smartwatches have little left to hide. A new leak reported by Android Authority has surfaced most of the remaining details about the Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, just over a week before the company’s Galaxy Unpacked event on July 22.

The biggest change is an invisible one: Samsung is expected to drop its own Exynos W1000 chip in favor of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite SW6100, a chipset unveiled only this year, according to the outlet.

Battery capacity looks like the other notable upgrade. Citing a report from Winfuture, Android Authority says the Watch Ultra 2 could reach 800mAh, well beyond the 590mAh cell in the current Watch Ultra. The 44mm Watch 9 reportedly gets a 445mAh cell — the same capacity as last year’s Watch 8 Classic — while the 40mm model stays at 325mAh.

The 40mm Watch 9 will reportedly feature a 438 x 438-pixel panel, with the 44mm Watch 9 and the Watch Ultra 2 sharing a larger 480 x 480-pixel screen. Samsung leaker Ice Universe has separately claimed the Ultra 2’s display could reach a peak brightness of 5,000 nits. RAM and storage vary by model, topping out at 2GB and 64GB.

Also Read: Tamper With The Recording LED & Meta’s Glasses Kill Camera

The Ultra 2 keeps its titanium case and 100-meter water resistance; the standard Watch 9 remains aluminum, rated to 5 ATM. All models are said to include Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, and dual-band WiFi, with the usual LTE variants, and ship with One UI 9 Watch running on Wear OS 7.

A separate leak puts the Galaxy Watch 9 at €409 (about $468) for the 40mm Bluetooth model, rising to €489 (about $560) for the 44mm LTE version, with the Watch Ultra 2 LTE at €749 (about $857) — figures Android Authority said were partially corroborated by Winfuture. Confirmation arrives on stage on July 22.