The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced a partnership with the National Olympic Committee of Saudi Arabia to host the first-ever Olympic Games for esports in a press release on July 12. The proposal for the games will be made ahead of the Paris games this year.

While we’ve seen the IOC involved with esports in the past, most notably for 2023’s Olympics Esports Series, this will be the first official Olympic Esports Games and kicks off a 12-year partnership between the IOC and the Saudi Olympic office. It is not known at this time whether the proposed Games will be held outside of Saudi Arabia in future years. “We are very fortunate to be able to work with the Saudi NOC on the Olympic Esports Games because it has great if not unique expertise in the field of esports with all its stakeholders,” IOC president Thomas Bach said in a July press release.