North American beverage and food corporation PepsiCo has announced a partnership with Saudi Arabian esports and gaming festival Gamers8.
PepsiCo will be the exclusive water, beverage and snack partner for the event. As a result, PepsiCo brands Aquafina, Pepsi Zero Sugar, Rockstar Energy and Doritos will all be available during the event.
Gamers8 is set to start on July 6th and last for eight weeks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The event will feature the largest joint prize pool in esports history, with over $45m (~£38m) divided across multiple games. Apart from esports, concerts and other gaming-focused activations are planned, this includes performances from the likes of Macklemore and Imagine Dragons.
PepsiCo will provide its beverage and snack brands once again after working with the Saudi Esports Federation on the inaugural edition of the festival in 2022. The two parties noted that there will be over 1.5m bottles of Aquafina water handed out to festival visitors free of charge during the summer.
Tournament in numerous games are planned, ranging from simulation racing title Rennsport, to StarCraft 2, Street Fighter, Rainbow Six: Siege, Dota 2, CS:GO and Rocket League.
The festival will conclude with the Next World Forum, a large-scale conference that will gather important decision makers from the esports and gaming industries. The conference will take place on August 30th and August 31st at the Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh.
Aamer Sheikh, PepsiCo Middle East CEO commented on the partnership: “We are thrilled to be to once again involved with the world’s biggest gaming and e-sports festival, which takes place right here in the heart of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
“Building on the tremendous success that the festival witnessed last year, we are looking forward to having festival visitors enjoy their time alongside our snacks and beverages, which go side-by-side with the exhilarating events taking place at Gamers8.”
