The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has no plans to scale back its rapidly growing sports portfolio.

Since 2019, Saudi Arabia has hosted more than 100 elite international events across 40 sports.

The value of its sports sector is projected to hit £17bn by 2030, which may be further boosted by hosting the men’s football World Cup in 2034.

BBC Sport’s Ask Me Anything team takes a look at which sporting events are taking place in the country in 2025.

A busy start to the year continues with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend. It’s the fifth year in a row the race has appeared on the Formula 1 calendar.

The World Rally Championship (WRC) takes place the Middle East for the first time since 2011 – and for a third successive year, the world’s best eight female tennis players will play the season-ending Women’s Tennis Association Tour Finals.

Here is a list of the major events that have happened this year, and which are still to come:

The Gulf state is also set to stage the Olympic Games for electronic sports (e-sports) this year, and the second Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, following the inaugural tournament in September 2024.

There are strong indications from those based in Saudi Arabia that the country is preparing a bid to host either the 2036 or 2040 Summer Olympic Games.

Unbuilt ‘sport city’ Qiddiya would be the proposed home to the Olympic village in the event of a successful Saudi Arabia bid. The event would likely be moved to the winter months to cope with the high temperatures.

Last year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced a 12-year partnership with the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee (SOPC) which started with organising the e-sports Olympic Games.

Many critics claim the investment in sport is to gain legitimacy and deflect attention from controversy over Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and its impact on the environment, a practice known as ‘sportswashing’.

This month, a new report by Amnesty International claimed that Saudi Arabia recorded more than 345 executions in 2024, double the amount compared to the previous year. The executions were largely for terrorism and drug-related offences. In 2022, 81 men were executed on one day.

The country’s international standing was severely damaged by the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a US-based Saudi journalist who was a prominent critic of the government.

Environmental campaigners have also raised their concerns.

Freddie Daley, from environmental campaign group Badvertising, said: “Saudi Arabia is a country deeply dependent on fossil fuels… It’s massive presence within sport… It is promoting and normalising high-carbon products to billions of fans.”

Saudi Arabia’s sports minister Prince Abdulaziz has previously described claims of ‘sportswashing’ against the country as “very shallow”.

“A lot of the people that accuse us of that haven’t been to Saudi, or seen what we are doing,” Prince Abdulaziz told BBC Sport.

After Saudi Arabia was confirmed as the host for the men’s 2034 Fifa World Cup in December, Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s head of labour rights and sport said: “Fifa knows workers will be exploited and even die without fundamental reforms in Saudi Arabia, and yet has chosen to press ahead regardless.”

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund – known as its Public Investment Fund (PIF) – owns the LIV golf series and has partnerships with tennis governing bodies the ATP and the WTA.

PIF has controlling stakes in Newcastle United, alongside four Saudi Pro League clubs Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli, who have spent more than £1bn trying to attract the world’s best players to the league over the past two seasons.

Saudi Arabia are not just hosting events on home soil.

This year, it announced an intention to begin a new global boxing league with UFC president Dana White and TKO Group, which owns the UFC and WWE.

It has previously funded boxing events in the US and the UK including Daniel Dubois’ victory over Anthony Joshua at Wembley.

As of December 2024, Saudi Arabia had 900 sponsorship deals across sports worldwide, according to a report by Play the Game, a publicly funded sports ethics institute in Denmark.

Aramco – a Saudi energy and chemicals company – has long-term deals with Formula 1 and the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Visit Saudi sponsors La Liga, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

Sela, a Saudi Arabian entertainment and hospitality company owned by Newcastle’s owners, is the club’s front-of-shirt sponsor.

Saudi Arabia has not been successful in all of its attempts to acquire the most popular sports in the world.

Sports promoter Barry Hearn told Talksport in December that he rejected an offer to take a darts tournament to the country,

“I think it’s the first time anybody from Saudi Arabia has been given no for an answer,” Hearn said.

“I had the Saudis ask me the other week: Can we have the darts?’

“I said: ‘Can we have alcohol?’

“They said: ‘No.’ I said: ‘Well then, you can’t have the darts.'”