As Saudi Arabia ramps up its investment in esports and gaming, True Gamers — a fast-growing network of gaming cafés and esports venues — is expanding the market with a major deal to open four new locations in Riyadh.
The agreement, signed on June 23 at Dubai Internet City, marks the company’s first multi-club rollout in the Kingdom. The new venues will open in premier malls across Riyadh, operated by CRIT Gaming Saudi under the leadership of Ilya Yuryev, who will act as True Gamers’ official representative in Saudi Arabia.
This is True Gamers’ second move into the Kingdom. Earlier this year, the company sold a franchise in Mecca, where a flagship club is already under development.
“The Saudi market is at a tipping point — it’s ambitious, young, and ready for the next level of gaming infrastructure,” said Vlad Belyanin, co-founder of True Gamers. “Our goal is to build local partnerships and create spaces that feel authentic to the Saudi gaming community.”
The expansion arrives as Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan accelerates state-backed investment in the sector. With over $13 billion committed to gaming and esports, the Kingdom is positioning itself as a global industry hub. According to the Savvy Games Group, Saudi Arabia aims to create 39,000 new gaming jobs and boost the sector’s contribution to GDP by over $12 billion in the coming years.
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Founded in 2022, True Gamers operates 15 venues in the UAE and has announced expansion into Morocco, Jordan, France, and Germany. Beyond physical spaces, the company runs up to seven esports tournaments weekly, collaborates with partners like Sony and LG, and develops concepts like eQueens Villa — the Arab world’s first women-only gaming hub. In 2024, the company unveiled a concept for the world’s first esports island in Abu Dhabi. In Dubai, the team made headlines by launching the world’s first robotic dog waiters. True Gamers was founded in 2022 by Anton Vasilenko and Vladislav Belyanin, who previously built the second-largest gaming café network in the CIS region, expanding it to 130+ locations since 2019. The company is scaling through a hybrid model of franchising and venture capital, aiming to capture 10% of the US, European, and MENA gaming cafe markets by 2030.
