International Olympic Committee and Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee end cooperation on Olympic Esports Games

The planned cooperation between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee (SOPC) over the Olympic Esports Games has come to an end.

After originally being put in place only last year, the deal is being ended early because the pair are now going to explore their own separate initiatives.

As for what this means for the players and fans, the IOC has said that it will "develop a new approach to the Olympic Esports Games, taking the feedback from the "Pause and Reflect" process into account, and pursue a new partnership model."

In terms of why the IOC is going down this route, it also explains that "this approach will be a chance to better fit the Olympic Esports Games to the long-term ambitions of the Olympic Movement and to spread the opportunities presented by the Olympic Esports Games more widely, with the objective of having the inaugural Games as soon as possible."

It's unclear what the SOPC will instead look to offer, but the Esports World Cup is already held in Saudi Arabia every summer, so perhaps they will simply double-down on that.