The Saudi Pro League continues to capture global attention, with international media rights revenue reported to have risen by 20% in September 2025. This growth underlines the importance of strong governance, modern competition management, and professional media distribution in driving commercial success.
Saudi Arabia’s collaboration with global technology partners, the UAE’s drive for data-driven governance, and Qatar’s investment in sports tech start-ups all show how digital innovation has become central to the way sport is managed, delivered, and monetised across the Middle East.
In this article, we look at how governance and professionalism are evolving across the region and how technology is playing a decisive role in shaping sustainable growth of domestic sports in line with national strategies.
How technology is making a difference?
Middle East
Saudi Arabia
Saudi’s sports industry is underpinned by the growth of their domestic football competition, the Saudi Pro League. The flood of investment made to improve the league has not just been focused on players, however. The league has also collaborated with leading global technology partners like Globant, Stats Perform and OneFootball to improve competition management, data analysis and content distribution, ensuring the league is better managed, better informed and more widely covered.
Saudi has also prioritised the hosting of electric vehicle racing with the likes of Formula E which uses its digital platforms to host features like predictor games and a Live Race Centre which combines live timing, interactive track maps and driver tracking with highlights and behind the scenes content.
Esports is a big part of Saudi’s sports industry with the country hosting the annual Exports World Cup (EWC). Recognising the opportunity to engage a huge global audience, EWC have leveraged the cloud technology of their partner Amazon Web Services to enhance the viewing experience by delivering AI-powered live match insights and enabling automated, personalised highlights. The tournament also uses its digital channels to empower media, by offering an online media lobby with access to imagery, news and videos to enhance global media coverage.
TEC Take
Immediacy is a minimum expectation within the modern sports experience, with fans demanding to know what happens as it happens. With big tournaments featuring multiple competitors this means knowing not just individual scores, but how each fluctuation impacts their position in the competition. TEC has first-hand experience of this having successfully integrated a real-time scoring engine into The Open’s website and app to ensure accurate and timely information for fans worldwide.
The role of the media in ensuring fans, rights holders and sponsors get the coverage they want can not be overstated. Digital platforms are now an important component in ensuring media have the content they need, when and where they need it. TEC understands the importance and intricacies of facilitating global media coverage having designed and built a virtual media centre for The R&A to use at The Open Championship.
UAE
In addition to serving elite performance, the UAE’s Sportifai platform is designed to support data-driven decision-making within its sports federations, facilitating smarter governance and greater efficiency by reducing the administrative burden on officials.
The UAE government have recognised the economic potential of Esports and gaming and have supported tech-centred initiatives such as the DMCC Gaming Centre, the Dubai Esports & Games Festival and the Abu Dhabi Esports Island aimed at accelerating the growth of the industry across the Emirates.
Qatar
Recognising the importance of technology to the growth of their sports industry, Qatar created The Qatar SportsTech (QST) Accelerator in order to identify and support start-ups focused on areas such as AI, wearables, fan engagement, data analytics and smart stadium solutions. By supporting both local and international start-ups, QST not only fosters the growth of Qatari businesses, it seeks to embed Qatar in the broader global sports tech industry. QST alumni include Sponix Tech and Golee.
Esports is also a key focus for Qatar, with the Qatar E-sports Federation driving the growth industry through tournaments, international partnerships and talent development.
How is technology making a difference to the Middle East Sports Industry?
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