About
Saad Sarwar
Co-founder of 8FLAMEZ, the Dubai creator management and venture studio I run with AboFlah and Eyad Siyam. We represent the largest Arabic-language creators and build companies with them.
Before 8FLAMEZ I spent a decade in esports and gaming, in London and then back home in Dubai. I make a lot of mistakes and I am constantly learning. This site is where I write the learnings down.
Now
8FLAMEZ has two parts. The agency represents creators, starting with AboFlah, the largest Arabic-language creator in the world, and sells and delivers their brand partnerships. The ventures side builds companies with creators: consumer brands, platforms and IP that the creator owns a real piece of.
I look after the commercial side: deals, product, strategy and contracts. Eyad runs content, creative and partner relationships. Hassan is the creator everything is built around, and a co-founder.
Before
2013
Fnatic
Sales Director during one of its legendary eras. Four people in a 3 by 3 room to a team of ten in London.
2015
Level99 and OG
Founded a creative agency for brands chasing gaming audiences. Co-founded OG, later the first esports team to share a logo with Red Bull.
2019
Wanda
Level99, backed by BITKRAFT, was acquired by Wanda Group and folded into the Wanda Sports Nasdaq IPO.
2020
Galaxy Racer
Back in Dubai as SVP for MENA. Face to face with the region’s most enigmatic creators, which led to 8FLAMEZ.
What I write about
The creator economy and why the Middle East is underrepresented in it. Creators as IP owners and business builders, not distribution. How we run 8FLAMEZ: transparent, creator-first deals, the hires and the mistakes. What is changing across the region and what comes next. And, most years during Ramadan, what my faith teaches me about business and character.
The 2014 to 2020 posts are about esports. They stay up, labelled as the Esports archive, because that is where I learned most of what I know.
Speaking and press
Panels on the creator economy in the Gulf, including the Billion Followers Summit in Dubai. For speaking, interviews or a creator partnership, email is fastest.
“Nothing worth knowing can be taught.”
Oscar Wilde. A line my late mother loved, and the reason this site exists.