Esports World Cup launches free-to-play fantasy competition

The Esports World Cup has launched a free-to-play fantasy competition for five of the 24 tournaments at the multi-title esports event.

Fans taking part in the fantasy competitions can play for a share of a $100,000 (~£72,943) prize pool.

Fantasy games for VALORANT, Dota 2, League of Legends, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Counter-Strike 2 will be available for fans to play before the tournaments take place throughout July and August.

In addition to fantasy games, the Esports World Cup will offer Pick ‘Em competitions for all 24 of the titles hosting tournaments at the event, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

To launch the games, the Esports World Cup has joined forces with sports data and technology company Genius Sports. In recent months, the company partnered with GRID and Bayes Esports to provide data from esports tournaments to sportsbooks.

The Esports World Cup becomes the latest event to launch a fantasy product for fans. In 2025, the likes of BLAST and the LTA have offered fantasy games during their events.

The prediction and Pick ‘Em games for all titles featured at the Esports World Cup are available to play now. Fans wanting to make their predictions can sign up and pick the players they think will have strong performances during their respective tournaments.

Depending on when a tournament takes place, fans must save their predictions before the deadline to be eligible for the leaderboards. Those at the top of the leaderboards will win a share of the prize money.

Despite the event organiser’s multi-million-dollar investment in the Esports World Cup, the event continues to generate backlash due to allegations of esportswashing. The Esports World Cup Foundation is backed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, an initiative that has resulted in traditional sporting and esports events taking place in the Kingdom.

In addition to esportswashing, the Kingdom’s human rights record continues to be the centre of criticism.