Esports World Cup 2024 left teams waiting months for millions in unpaid prize winnings despite a $60M prize pool

The 2024 Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- billed as the largest esports event in history with a $60 million prize pool across 22 titles -- failed to pay out winnings to multiple participating teams for over six months after the event concluded in August 2024. Teams competing in Apex Legends ($2M prize pool), Mobile Legends Bang Bang, Tekken, and PUBG Mobile reported receiving no communication, no payment timeline, or only partial disbursements, while the EWC Foundation claimed '99%' of payments had been made. Why it matters: Teams and players who won prize money cannot collect their earnings for months, so they face cash flow crises that threaten roster stability and operational costs, so organizations are forced to cut players or reduce investment in competitive rosters, so the competitive ecosystem contracts as fewer organizations are willing to risk entering tournaments with uncertain payouts, so esports as a whole loses credibility with sponsors and investors who see prize pool commitments as unreliable. The structural root cause is that esports tournament organizers face no enforceable contractual penalty for delayed prize payouts, and there is no independent escrow or governing body that holds prize pool funds in trust before tournaments begin -- leaving teams entirely dependent on the organizer's goodwill and internal payment processes across multiple international jurisdictions.