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On a bit of a lark, Klaus Kajetski wanted to live somewhere it was warm. He grew up in the cold and dark of Finland, and he wanted to move by the equator. That was the beginning of his journey to start Yalla Esports in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Twelve years later, he is firmly planted in Dubai. At first, he was a DJ. But gaming was always his passion, and he was always excited about esports. He spent time in internet cafes and got to know a lot of people in the local gaming community. He was a semi-pro playing Counter-Strike.
He started Yalla Esports (the company spells it YaLLa) in 2016 and it has been growing ever since, pivoting when necessary. He had met talented players who could have been esports stars, but they didn’t think they could make a living at esports. Yalla Esports started as a way to build a platform where gamers could go pro. With each new popular game, the potential for esports as a market grew.
Dubai’s fortunes also took off, and now it’s a center of tourism and finance that draws people from around the world. It has its issues, of course, but Dubai is much better off than other places like Gaza, wrote Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times Columnist.
“Once I’d learned about the culture, the place, the opportunity — no place is perfect — but this is a great place to be,” Kajetski said in an interview with GamesBeat.
During that time, Kajetski saw attitudes toward gaming change, both among the masses and the government. In 2019, the company raised a small funding round. The company morphed to being an esports marketing agency and B2B consultancy. Yalla is also building its own media business and event, Compass, around the Counter-Strike community, on an Arabic-only platform.
Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.
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Yalla Esports was founded in 2016.
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The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the tallest building in the world.
