Esports organizer Riot Games has announced teams playing in its League of Legends (LoL) and Valorant competitions will now be able to agree sponsorship deals with betting companies.
The move applies strictly to tier one teams competing in the Americas and Europe, the Middle East, and Asia (EMEA) region, and with significant restrictions as to how this may appear.
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Crucially, Riot Games-owned broadcasts and social media channels will remain free of betting advertisements and content, with any sponsored branding, advertising, and content restricted to each team’s own digital, broadcast, and social channels
Furthermore, Riot Games will vet all prospective gambling-based team partnerships before approval and will mandate integrity checks for every team.
While limited to tier one teams, tier two teams will benefit from a portion of all Riot Games revenues from sports betting sponsorships, which will be reinvested into training, prize money, tournament infrastructure, integrity, and more.
On the logic behind inviting sports betting sponsorships into the category, a controversial prospect in itself, Riot Games president for publishing and esports, John Needham, commented: “Historically, this has been a restricted sponsorship category, and Riot has not engaged with betting companies.
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By GlobalData“Teams have asked us to reconsider our stance, and after years of analysis to ensure we got it right, we agreed it was time to open up this category to create more revenue opportunities for teams.
“Sports betting – and more specifically, esports betting – is a space that more fans choose to engage with every year. According to Sportradar, the total betting turnover globally involving just LoL Esports and VCT reached $10.7 billion in 2024.
“But here’s the problem: 70% of bets across all sports are placed in unregulated markets with bookmakers who aren’t licensed.
“We believe it’s better to engage in allowing betting sponsorships — thoughtfully, carefully, and with the right protections — than to sit on the sidelines while risks to fans and integrity go unchecked.”
This move comes at a time when Riot Games is striving to grow its own partnership portfolio.
Recently, the organizer enlisted T/Squared, an arm of the TEAM Group marketing agency, to grow its presence in the EMEA region, with the agency tasked with generating sponsorship sales with the support of Riot Games’ Berlin-based esports business development team.
