Riot Games, the studio behind League of Legends (LoL) and VALORANT, has announced that esports betting and sponsorships will now be officially integrated into their marquee titles.
Both games have a following across the globe, and there are multiple regional tournaments that have, up until this point, not been supported or endorsed by Riot and a betting partner.
John Needham, President of Publishing and Esports at Riot, has penned a letter to fans and onlookers that looks set to breach that stance and allow “regulated” betting sponsorship and endorsement to be an official part of their gaming brands.
Riot gives esports betting backing
Needham has made light of how lucrative esports betting has been across 2024, citing a recent Sportradar report showing “total betting turnover globally involving just LoL Esports and VCT reached $10.7 billion.”
“As the publisher of the world’s two biggest esports, we take seriously our duty to teams, players, and fans to safeguard the ecosystem we’ve built and position it for long-term success.” – John Needham, Riot Games Publishing and Esports President
So, Riot may be making their decision based on an established betting bedrock that looks set to increase across 2025 with the number of registered betting operators on the incline in the United States and beyond.
“Long-term success” is used throughout the release, and the onus is on making sure that the established framework Riot has now incorporates the opportunity for teams and tournaments to be sponsored by betting partners.
“We take seriously our duty to teams, players, and fans to safeguard the ecosystem we’ve built and position it for long-term success,” Needham continued, whilst listing the betting “guardrails.”
Riot has created an initial sports betting partnership program to open up sponsorship opportunities with betting brands. This includes the development of regulations, monitoring best practices, and educational programs that protect the integrity of esports teams, pros, fans, and events.
Needham then broke down the highlights of the process that will be in place for the regulation of interested betting parties, stating that a rigorous vetting process would be in place, “to bring the same razor of scrutiny to all betting brands interested in our teams.”
Riot said it will also only use GRID, the data collation tool that is used to populate statistical data for their tournaments.
Needham was clear in saying that any betting operator interested in partnering “must use GRID to power their offerings, ensuring consistency, integrity, and accountability across the board.”
Teams will also be held accountable by Riot to continue to access the lucrative sponsorships that come with being at the top of the pile in the esports environment. Needham was clear that each team will need to have its own “integrity program inclusive of policy development, monitoring, and education.”
Needham’s final process revolved around the growth of the Tier 2 system of tournaments and competitive play. He is looking to invest in this area of the sport, and the funds from betting partnerships will go towards “Increasing prize pools and creating new tournaments to support aspiring pros.”
Featured image: Riot official.
