The British International School Riyadh has partnered with NES, a gaming-focused digital media company and subsidiary of Nesma Holding Company, to offer students access to the rapidly evolving world of esports. The partnership will provide BISR’s students with hands-on experience across key industry areas such as game design, coaching, broadcasting, competition management, and data analysis.
The new partnership comes in line with Saudi Vision 2030, which aims to diversify the Kingdom’s economy and create new jobs in various sectors, including esports. It also supports the National Gaming and Esports Strategy, which aims to position Saudi Arabia as a global hub for gaming and esports by 2030.
Through this collaboration, BISR will introduce an extracurricular skills academy with a focus on esports, designed to upskill students across various areas of the industry. The program will also lay the foundation for offering a formal BTEC qualification by BISR in the future. This marks a significant milestone in Saudi Arabia’s educational landscape, further contributing to the upskilling and development of the esports industry in the region.
As part of the program, students will gain exposure to the inner workings of the esports ecosystem, preparing them for future careers in a field that is rapidly expanding worldwide. NES will also assist in designing state-of-the-art esports gaming labs at BISR’s Al-Hamra campus, providing a unique environment for students to explore their career paths in esports. The first activity session, which was held on Oct. 19, saw enthusiastic participation, confirming the program’s potential to engage students across disciplines.
Teslim Olomowewe, BTEC lead at BISR, said: “By partnering with NES, we are offering our students a unique opportunity to engage with the future of entertainment and technology. This partnership not only empowers our students with the skills they need for the future, but also positions BISR at the forefront of educational innovation in Saudi Arabia. The initiative reflects BISR’s dedication to providing students with a comprehensive education that meets the demands of modern industries.”
Elie Honain, CEO at NES, said: “Nesma is proud to partner with BISR in support of Vision 2030 to empower youth in the Kingdom. This program offers students an opportunity to develop teamwork, strategy, and leadership skills through competitive gaming. Esports fosters community and creativity, and we aim to create a supportive environment where all students can participate and grow. We encourage students to join this exciting initiative and help build a vibrant esports community that empowers our youth to thrive.”
This partnership is particularly important at a time when the gaming and esports industry in the Kingdom is projected to generate SR50 billion ($13.3 billion) and create more than 39,000 jobs by 2030, with more than 65 percent of the Saudi population expressing interest in the sector, as per the National Gaming and Esports Strategy.
BISR empowers students with esports skills
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BISR empowers students with esports skills
Cisco drives Kingdom’s secure expansion into AI-driven, cloud-first future
With local infrastructure investment, AI-ready data centers and diverse strategic partnerships, Cisco is supporting the Kingdom’s secure expansion into an AI-driven, cloud-first future.
Fady Younes, managing director for cybersecurity at Cisco for the Middle East, Africa, Türkiye, Romania and CIS, said that Saudi Arabia is adopting AI at a pace faster than the global average, according to Cisco’s Cybersecurity Readiness Index and AI Readiness Index. Still, while this rapid uptake is driving efficiency and innovation, it also introduces new AI-related risks that organizations must address early, he said. This underscores the critical importance of embedding security into every digital and AI initiative from the outset to ensure safe and sustainable growth.
A key pillar of Cisco’s strategy in Saudi Arabia, according to Younes, is local infrastructure investment. Cisco has established fully operational data centers in the Kingdom to deliver cloud-based security services and the Webex collaboration platform, with plans to launch a dedicated Meraki cloud region. Localizing these services, he said, supports national data-sovereignty requirements, strengthens regulatory compliance, and reduces latency, enabling faster AI-driven threat detection and response.
Younes also pointed to Cisco’s partnership with AMD and HUMAIN, a PIF company. This joint venture, set to launch in 2026, will combine advanced data centers with Cisco and AMD technologies to provide efficient, cost-effective infrastructure and develop up to 1 GW of AI capacity by 2030. He described the initiative as a strong example of how global technology expertise and local ambition can align to support the Kingdom’s long-term AI goals.
Discussing the growing demand for AI-ready data centers, Younes highlighted Cisco’s role in modernizing traditional environments into unified, high-performance platforms. This includes Secure AI Factory architectures with scalable AI PODs and embedded security, private and hybrid cloud models that preserve data sovereignty, GPU-optimized compute powered by low-latency Silicon One networking, and unified management through platforms such as Intersight and Nexus Dashboard. All these capabilities, combined with strategic partnerships with companies like NVIDIA, give Saudi organizations the resilience and scalability needed to run large-scale AI workloads with confidence.
On the cybersecurity front, Younes explained that AI now sits at the core of how threats are detected and contained. By applying AI across the security stack, Cisco can identify patterns that human analysts would miss, correlate signals across networks, endpoints, and cloud environments, and automate large parts of responses at speed. This approach is fundamental in the Middle East, where rapid digitization has expanded attack surfaces and introduced risks like shadow AI and fragmented security tools.
Platforms such as Cisco’s AI Defense, he said, are designed to protect AI models and applications themselves, while also strengthening overall detection and response. Identity has also become the primary target in modern attacks, so Cisco’s AI-driven tools protect user identities, authentication flows, and access behaviors across hybrid environments. Combined with capabilities like Hybrid Mesh Firewall and Universal Zero Trust Network Access, these technologies are delivered through the Cisco Security Cloud, enabling Middle East organizations to respond faster, simplify operations, and stay ahead of increasingly AI-driven threats.
Beyond technology, Younes stressed that building a skilled local workforce is essential to sustaining Saudi Arabia’s digital momentum. Cisco works closely with universities, government entities, and telecom partners to develop talent equipped for AI-enabled, cloud-centric networks. To date, more than 480,000 learners in Saudi Arabia have been trained through the Cisco Networking Academy, with women accounting for 36 percent of participants. Cisco has also committed to providing free digital upskilling for 500,000 learners in the Kingdom over the next five years across AI, cybersecurity, data science, and programming.
He added that Cisco is placing growing emphasis on AI-security literacy, helping learners and professionals understand emerging risks such as data exposure, shadow AI, and identity-based attacks. To further advance AI research and development, Cisco and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology announced the launch of a new AI Institute, focusing on applied research in areas ranging from AI-native communication systems and advanced edge infrastructure for Industry 5.0 to AI-driven solutions for critical sectors such as water, energy, food, and healthcare.
Looking ahead, Younes believes that the most significant security priorities for Saudi organizations over the next five years will shift toward protecting far more dynamic, distributed, and automated environments. One of the biggest needs will revolve around securing AI systems themselves, not just the data they use, but the models, applications, and pipelines that drive new digital services. As cyberattackers increasingly use AI to scale their operations, organizations will also need defenses that operate at machine speed and can automatically correlate signals across networks, users, and cloud workloads.
Fragmented security architectures will be another challenge as companies modernize and move deeper into hybrid and multicloud environments. Cisco’s integrated approach, bringing networking and security together through the Cisco Security Cloud, is designed to address this challenge, Younes said. By simplifying complex hybrid and multicloud environments and supporting zero-trust security across AI workloads, Cisco aims to help Saudi organizations innovate securely and confidently as they embrace AI at scale.
Finally, there is the long-term workforce element. As networks become more cloud-centric, Saudi organizations will need talent that understands both AI and cybersecurity. Cisco’s partnerships across the Kingdom, from enterprise collaborations to skills programs, are designed to help build that capability so organizations can innovate confidently at scale.
