Saudi Arabia's PIF backs China e-sports platform
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has invested USD 265m in China’s VSPO, an e-sports broadcaster and events promoter formerly known as VSPN.
In a brief social media post, the company described it as the largest-ever direct investment in the industry. PIF is committing capital via its recently launched Savvy Games business, which targets games and e-sports with long-dated capital.
“Savvy Games Group is one part of our ambitious strategy aiming to make Saudi Arabia the ultimate global hub for the games and esports sector by 2030,” Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia, as well as chairman of Savvy, said in a statement last September.
“We are harnessing the untapped potential across the esports and games sector to diversify our economy, drive innovation in the sector and further scale the entertainment and esports competition offerings across the Kingdom”.
VSPO was founded in 2016 as Versus Programming Network (VSPN) in an allusion to US sports broadcasting giant ESPN. Prior to the pandemic, it had claimed to be the leading e-sports services player in Asia with a 70% market share. The latest funding is seen as a catalyst to reboot Chinese activity in this space, which has been largely dormant for the past three years.
Operations span services around live and online gaming tournaments and online content and cross-channel brand promotion. This includes helping teams, game titles, and game production and publishing companies such as Tencent Games establish co-branding partnerships with the likes of McDonald’s, Volkswagen, and Intel.
The company raised USD 160m across two Series B investments in 2020 and 2021. Investors include Temasek Holdings, Tencent Holdings, Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, Prospect Avenue Capital, Guotai Junan International, Tiantu Capital, SIG, and Nan Fung Group, as well as Chinese short-video platform Kuaishou.
VSPO filed for a Hong Kong IPO early last year, revealing Tencent as the largest shareholder with 13.5%. It posted CNY 1.3bn (USD 190m) in revenue for the first three quarters of 2021, up 144% year-on-year. At the time, the company claimed to have 1,400 employees in China and Korea. The IPO application has since lapsed.
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