The AlUla Falcons Cup was launched at AlUla with a prize pool of $16m

The event will run until January 5 in collaboration with the Saudi Falcons Club and the Royal Commission for Al Ullah.

Held at the Mugira Heritage Sports Village in AlUla, the trophy is set to offer the biggest awards in the history of international falconry competitions.

Walid Al-Taweel, the official spokesperson of the Saudi Falcons Club, praised the partnership between the club and the Royal Commission for AlUla.

He added that the partnership aims to promote the heritage of the Kingdom’s falconers, celebrate the authentic culture of falconry internationally, create environmental awareness and support local falconers.

Al-Taweel said: “The prize is SR60 million and the competition is huge considering the value of its awards internationally.

“There are four tracks in the competition: three of them are designated for the falcon race (al-Milwa) and the fourth is for the beauty pageant (al-Masayen),” he added.

“The first track is for local owners and professionals, who will compete in 24 rounds for prizes worth SR10.4 million. The second track consists of local and international finalists of the King Abdulaziz Falconry Festival. They will compete in 48 rounds for prizes worth SR28.6 million.

“The third leg of the trophy is divided into six rounds for local and international elite falcons. Prizes for this song are SR10.5 million. The fourth track is designated for the Al-Masayen (Beauty) competition, and consists of six rounds for locals, with prizes of SR10.2 million,” he said.

Al-Taweel listed the types of hawks that participate in this event: the lanner, the peregrine (shaheen), the khair pur and the jer shaheen.

The event is an extension of the success of the recently concluded King Abdulaziz Falconry Festival, he added.

For the third time in history, the festival has entered the Guinness World Records as the world’s largest falconry competition. 2,654 hawks from eight countries participated in this.

Al-Milwah match at AlUla starts at 9am daily, while Al-Mazayen matches are held at 8pm daily from January 2-4.