How stc Group Scaled the Esports World Cup from Riyadh to Paris

stc Group Closes Third Year as EWC Anchor as Competition Lands in Paris

The Esports World Cup just played its first championship round outside Saudi Arabia, and stc group has now logged three consecutive years as a Founding and Elite Partner of the circuit. According to IndexBox, the 2026 edition staged its grand final at Paris's Accor Arena — the largest indoor venue in the city — after Championship Sunday demand forced organizers to relocate. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was in attendance.

The Biggest Edition Yet

The numbers out of IndexBox frame a tournament that has outgrown its origins. Over 2,000 professional players representing 200 clubs from more than 100 nations competed across 25 tournaments and 24 game titles for a prize pool exceeding $75 million — the largest purse in EWC history. The 2025 installment in Riyadh had already pushed to 2,000 pro players, 7 million on-site attendees, and a $70 million pool, so the Paris edition represents a step up rather than a reset.

Riyadh's 2024 debut, also backed by stc group, drew over 500 million viewers with a peak audience of 3.5 million, making it the most-watched global esports event of that year. The trajectory from a Saudi-rooted property to one that leading cities now compete to host is now validated.

stc's Network and Venue Footprint

stc group secured naming rights for three locations inside the EWC footprint: the stc Arena, hosting VALORANT, League of Legends, Counter-Strike 2, Rocket League, EA FC 26, Overwatch 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7; the stc Players Lounge; and stc Contenders. Behind the elite stage, the company organized and ran the Warriors Cup — more than 200 tournaments across 16 titles for over 10,000 amateur players during seven weeks of play.

Connectivity scaled accordingly. In 2025, stc broadened its network reach by more than 20% compared to the debut edition, deploying 14 dedicated internet lines with a combined throughput of 34 Gbps, backed by 30 mobile sites and connection speeds regularly surpassing 2 Gbps. Network uptime across the venues hit 99.9%. The stc tv EWC channel, which debuted on July 5, ran 10 to 12 hours of daily programming and amassed over 3 million plays through August 23, with set-top boxes driving most of the consumption.

What Happened on the Server

The competitive picture across the multi-title slate is still settling. EGamersWorld reports Spirit took the EWC 2026 championship with a 3:1 victory over FUT in the grand final, while Sportstar indicates the defending champion Falcons lost the title to All Gamers — suggesting different tournament brackets within the broader EWC structure yielded different champions. Esports Insider adds that trading volume on Kalshi rose around EWC, though MSI and IEM remain the biggest events on the prediction market.

stc group has now earned the Platinum Gaming Operator Award from the Communications, Space and Technology Commission for ten straight award cycles, a sign that the infrastructure investment is being recognized beyond the server logs. With Paris hosting its first EWC grand final and the prize pool clearing $75 million, the question for 2027 is no longer whether the circuit can travel — it already has.