Ralf Reichert has seen the evolution of esports from the humble early days that he, along with his brother and friends, founded SK Gaming, which over the years scaled to be one of Europe's top esports organizations.
Reichert, who is the CEO of the Esports World Cup Foundation, is now setting his attention to growing the industry to a larger scale, but he never forgot his roots.
So, Reichert adopted the mentality that the players come first when planning events and anything related to the Esports World Cup Foundation's premier event – the Esports World Cup.
"Our first stakeholders are the players," he said. "The reason why we're here is to grow the sport. From day one, we went into this and said, 'How can we be complementary to the ecosystem? How can we really help to uplift it?'"
The Esports World Cup Foundation will host its third Esports World Cup from July 5 to Aug. 23 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and will feature a record prize pool in 2026. The event features a total prize pool of $75 million, with $30 million going to the top 24 esports organizations and more than $39 million spread across the 25 individual games.
"In the history of esports, no one ever tried something bigger than five or six games at the same time," Reichert said. "We've gone so far ahead and so big that I believe we're enabling the industry to showcase the potential of esports."
The immense growth impressed Reichert, who has been a part of the growth of Electronic Sports League and the Overwatch League. Partnerships from game developers, organizations, and tournament operators grew from year to year.
"This is beyond what anyone imagined," Reichert said. "I've never seen that velocity and that positivity. The ecosystem embracing something like the EWC. I'm confident and very optimistic that we will double again from year two to year three."
The foundation continues to expand in 2026, adding events and activities for fans, including a festival where fans can mingle with others and play games.
The Esports World Cup Foundation also announced that it would be hosting the Esports Nations Cup in November, adding another $45 million to the total prize pool.
"We want to help each ecosystem to grow bigger," Reichert said. "We want to connect the story. We want to enable gamers to care about the overarching esports ecosystem."
The Esports World Cup Foundation receives funding from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is making the investment as part of its Saudi Vision 2030, the country's initiative to diversify its economy beyond oil. Saudi Arabia has invested in sporting and entertainment events, ranging from LIV Golf, Formula One, WWE events, and hosting rights for the FIFA World Cup in 2034.
The Esports World Cup Foundation is part of the government's focus on improvement on quality of life with esports being positioned next to arts, culture, and traditional sports.
All in all, Reichert wants to increase opportunities for players and organizations to succeed and have more opportunities to build a sustainable industry.
"As long as the foundation has the players and the community first, we will succeed in fulfilling our mission," he said. "'Are you helping to grow esports?' The answer from our funder, the Saudi Arabian government, so far, has been a very clear yes."
For more information on the 2026 Esports World Cup, visit https://esportsworldcup.com/en.