Riot Games to let Valorant and LoL teams accept betting sponsorships

Riot Games has reportedly given the green light for teams in professional competitions for League of Legends and VALORANT to team up with Betting Sponsors starting from 2025, based on information shared by esports commentator MonteCristo and shared by various media outlets, including Esports Insider.

Riot Games reportedly change tact to betting sponsorships

This is a tremendous change in the company’s policy towards betting sponsors, which means that prominent betting brands will now be able to support the operations behind some of the biggest esports powerhouses.

The change in policy is not exactly surprising as Counter-Strike and Dota 2 teams are already enjoying a robust relationship with some of the best-represented and regulated esports betting brands out there. Betway, for example, is a sponsor to a number of leagues and events, and so are many other licensed companies.

The League of Legends and VALORANT ecosystems could potentially get a boost from exploring such partnerships, allowing players and lower-tier teams to garner the means to grow and shoot through the ranks.

Naturally, though, such partnerships raise ethical concerns as onlookers worry that exposure of betting partnerships to younger audiences may make them more susceptible and vulnerable to gambling-related harm.

In numerous jurisdictions, for example, the likeness and imagery of famous personalities have been blocked from use by gambling companies. Esports may be a vertical to which younger audiences, below the gambling age in many places, may be attracted.

Betting sponsorships have been hailed by some as a necessary next step to develop the competitive scene and diversify the sponsorship streams that have focused on the top-tier talent, leaving many others beyond the competitive reach.

"Riot’s decision is pragmatic given the economic pressures on esports, but the restrictions on branding show they’re still wary of community backlash," one analyst quoted by Esports Insider explained.

The esports vertical has failed to produce notable gains when it comes to operational results. Many companies that ventured to be esports-first betting platforms have had to reconsider or suffer missteps down the road.

Esports-first betting platforms have had a tough time

Luckbox, an ambitious esports B2C project had to fold back and redouble as a B2B supplier instead. A similar fate fell on unikrn, Entain’s esports betting platform whose boss left the company, amid uncertainty about the esports vertical as a whole.

Rivalry, another multi-pronged business with plenty of clout, has also seen its results slow down. The company has pushed into iGaming and sports betting as well as esports betting. The sector, though, seems to still be quite vibrant, and Riot Games harmonizing its policies on gambling with other publishers and developers, such as Valve’s, makes sense.

Image credit: VALORANT Esports EMEA (@Flickr)