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Saudi Arabia deploys $120 million to boost gaming, esports industry
- Saudi Arabia’s National Development Fund (NDF) and the Social Development Bank (SDB) will jointly establish two venture capital funds with a combined value of $120 million, in an effort to boost the gaming and esports sectors in the kingdom.
- Launched during LEAP 2024, the initiative is a part of the Gaming and Esports Financing Programme and was created in association with the Saudi Esports Federation.
- The two funds, which will be managed by IMPACT46 and Merak Capital, will be concentrated on offering equity investments to gaming and eSports companies as development funding, with the goal of boosting local content production and speeding up growth.
Press release:
In an innovative move to bolster the gaming and esports industry within the Kingdom, the National Development Fund (NDF), in collaboration with the Social Development Bank (SDB), announced the signing of two agreements to establish two venture funds with a total size of SAR450 million ($120 million). The announcement was made during the LEAP 2024 technology conference in Riyadh, marking a significant step towards nurturing the thriving gaming and eSports industries.
The initiative is part of the Gaming and Esports Financing Programme, cooperating with the Saudi Esports Federation. Merak Capital and IMPACT46, the entities managing the two funds, will provide development financing for gaming and Esports companies through equity investments, in an effort to accelerate growth, enhances local content development, and amplifies the industry’s economic and social impact to achieve the objectives of the National Gaming and Esports Strategy and the Digital Content Program (Ignite).
Merak Capital is set to manage the first investment fund, with a size of SAR300 million ($80 million), focusing on establishing a gaming accelerator backed by venture investment to spur growth and cultivate local talent in the gaming industry. The goal is to position Saudi companies as leaders in this vibrant sector.
The second fund, managed by IMPACT46 and totalling SAR150 million ($40 million), seeks to stimulate private sector investment in the local gaming and Esports industry. Additionally, it seeks to attract international firms and studios to establish a more substantial presence in the Kingdom, further enriching the sector’s ecosystem.
Dr. Stephen Grove, Governor of NDF, stated, “The gaming and Esports industry has seen exponential growth globally, generating substantial revenue and job opportunities. With Saudi Arabia’s young demographic and other attractive investment components, NDF and our partners are prioritizing innovative financing solutions for this industry. We aim to ensure its financial sustainability and contribute to the Kingdom’s economic diversification and job creation efforts.”
Eng. Sultan Al-Humaidi, CEO of SDB, emphasized SDB’s commitment to supporting the gaming and e-sports industry, recognizing its potential for growth within the Kingdom. “Our objective is to cultivate the industry to self-sufficiency, positioning the Kingdom as a global hub. We provide the necessary support to ensure this venture succeeds, advancing the Saudi digital economy forward as a key component of the Kingdom’s digital transformation goals aligned with Saudi Vision 2030.”
This comes as part of NDF’s endeavors to develop the Saudi promising sectors and enhance their contribution to the national economy. All of this can be accomplished through empowerment and financial development support, to establish an environment that attracts local talent, deliver promising experiences, and target top-tier game production and development projects.
Source: Nico Partners / wamda.com

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Relax Gaming appoints Antonia Svensson as Chief Commercial Officer
Relax Gaming, the iGaming aggregator and supplier of award-winning content, has announced the appointment of Antonia Svensson as its new Chief Commercial Officer, marking a key step in the company’s next phase of commercial growth.
Svensson brings over 13 years of experience in the gaming industry, having held senior leadership roles across payments, content supply, and operations.
Her career began at Trustly, overseeing payment solutions for the gaming vertical, before joining Yggdrasil Gaming as Chief Commercial Officer. Most recently, she served as General Manager Malta at Light & Wonder, where she was responsible for the company’s online casino business across Europe.
In addition to her executive background, Svensson has sat on several gaming industry boards, including Fantasma Games, contributing strategic insights to support business development and innovation.
Now based at Relax Gaming’s Malta headquarters, Svensson will oversee all commercial activity across the group, supporting its global roadmap and driving new revenue opportunities through strategic partnerships.
Martin Stålros, CEO at Relax Gaming, said: “It’s a pleasure to welcome Antonia to Relax as our new CCO. Her standout experience and industry knowledge can serve as a fantastic asset to the company on a commercial level and I’m delighted that she has joined Relax at such an exciting stage in our development.”
Antonia Svensson, Chief Commercial Officer at Relax Gaming, said: “Relax Gaming has carved out an impressive reputation as one of the most forward-thinking and dynamic companies in iGaming. Having watched its growth closely over the years, I’m incredibly proud to now be part of this journey.
“I’m eager to collaborate with the talented team here to drive strategic growth, strengthen our partner relationships, and unlock new commercial opportunities across global markets.”
The post Relax Gaming appoints Antonia Svensson as Chief Commercial Officer appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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Neosurf and BridgerPay announce new strategic partnership
Pioneering cash-to-digital payments company teams up with market-leading payment orchestration platform to help partners unlock their full potential
Neosurf, the progressive online payments company known for its expertise in cash-to-digital solutions, smooth user experiences and providing ongoing responsible gaming and AML support to its partners has announced it has formed a new strategic partnership with the highly scalable and data-centric payment orchestration platform, BridgerPay.
Famed in the online payments industry for its prebuilt connections, unified dashboard and single-source reporting, BridgerPay is a fully agnostic platform that can be integrated into any set-up to help clients automate their payment flows and gain real-time insights into their customers.
Among the company’s wide range of solutions, BridgerPay is particularly well-known for its Bridger RetryTM capability, which empowers clients to save up to 30% of soft declined card payments by automatically referring them to fallback providers without disrupting the customer experience.
“Like Neosurf, BridgerPay is a company that’s fully committed to improving the online payments experience not just for operators, but for their customers as well,” said Andrea McGeachin, Neosurf’s Group CEO. “By teaming up with them, we’ll be able to ensure that Neosurf is seamlessly integrated into their clients’ checkouts as a payment option, giving bettors even more freedom over how they deposit.
“Not only will this improve the online cashier experience for customers by giving them instant access to our quick and secure cash-to-digital solutions, but it will also allow all BridgerPay partners to serve the huge number of players who prefer to use cash for their online transactions.”
With BridgerPay already helping organisations worldwide connect with hundreds of payment providers through simple, ready-made integrations, adding Neosurf further expands merchant choice and customer access.
“We’re delighted to partner with Neosurf. Their cash-to-digital payment solutions will play an important role in helping our clients reach and engage new customers across a wide range of markets,” said Matthew Boundy, PSP Partnership Manager. “Offering a service that reduces operators’ transaction costs, supports responsible gaming and AML best practice and provides a frictionless user experience to customers, they’re a key partner for us and will add enormous value to our clients.”
Though initially covering just European markets, the partnership between Neosurf and BridgerPay has plenty of scope to grow in future and will also see the two companies share knowledge and collaborate on technical solutions as they continue to innovate within the online payment space.
The post Neosurf and BridgerPay announce new strategic partnership appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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Bede takes gamification to the next level with all-new Tournament feature
Bede, the data-driven iGaming technology provider known for its market leading software and full-service platform solutions, has announced the launch of a proprietary Tournament feature that has the potential to completely revolutionise partners’ gamification options.
Created to provide a flexible and cost-effective solution for customers looking to engage their players via tournament and leaderboard promotions, the new feature makes it easy for operators to create their own custom contests without any of the limitations of normal provider-led offerings.
Whereas traditional tournament packages are typically tied to one provider – meaning operators can only incorporate games from a pre-defined line-up – Bede’s Tournaments offer a completely agnostic solution, allowing partners to have greater freedom and offer much more choice to their players.
The feature also alleviates the need for admins to learn provider-specific systems in order to set up their tournaments as they can simply create them in the centralised Bede back office, enabling them to take a more consistent approach and reduce the front-end work required to get them up and running.
Of course, all tournaments built via the Bede back-office can also be combined with any of the other services that are included in the company’s platform tool kit, meaning operators can easily create and automate prizes or view tournament history and performance data in the Player Account Manager (PAM).
From an end-user perspective, Bede Tournaments use APIs that make it simple for players to understand and check their current leaderboard position, creating an intuitive and highly immersive front-end experience that helps keep them engaged for the duration of every contest.
With these core product features working in tandem to drive user activity and increase customer satisfaction, Bede’s new Tournaments will change the way operators think about their gamification options and provide partners with a more dynamic way to incentivise players.
Colin Cole-Johnson, Chief Executive Officer at Bede Gaming, said: “With gamification features becoming an increasingly important part of operators’ engagement tool kits, our latest innovation makes it easy to create exciting tournaments that boost activity and truly appeal to players.
“Designed to address the drawbacks of traditional provider-led tournament offerings such as limited game choice and complicated technical set-up, our Tournaments will give operations teams the freedom and flexibility to create their own custom contests without the hassle of having to learn a new system each time. This way, they can pick the games and prizes they like, while also utilising our full suite of platform services to create an altogether more enjoyable experience.”
The post Bede takes gamification to the next level with all-new Tournament feature appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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