Riot will let gambling companies sponsor League Of Legends and Valorant esports teams

Riot Games are going to let their top League Of Legends and Valorant esports teams receive sponsorship from gambling companies, in a bid to snaffle up some of the billion dollar unofficial sports betting scene that surrounds both games.

The publishers promise that they’ll put appropriate “guardrails” in place to ensure that streams of tournaments aren’t suddenly overrun by shady gambling ads, and to protect players and viewers from the psychological impacts of gambling. They even think it’ll be beneficial to the community, in supposedly giving Riot more control of the existing esports gambling business. But the overriding rationale here is very much ‘this is a big dirty pie and we’d rather like a slice’.

The change in policy will only apply to tier 1 League of Legends and Valorant teams in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “We know sports betting isn’t for everyone, and that some fans have strong feelings about it, and we respect that,” Riot’s head of publishing and esports John Needham explains in a blog post. “However, the reality is that betting activity already exists around our sports and will continue whether we engage with it or not.

“Historically, this has been a restricted sponsorship category, and Riot has not engaged with betting companies,” he continues. “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.”

Needham supports this with a few figures taken from a Sportsradar analysis. Apparently, “the total betting turnover globally involving just LoL Esports and VCT reached $10.7 billion in 2024”. However, “70% of bets across all sports are placed in unregulated markets with bookmakers who aren’t licensed”. Riot feels 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.” In other words, Riot are of the opinion that the best way to protect people from the gambling companies is to team up with them.

As for the “guardrails” against predatory or anti-competitive behaviour on the part of either the bookies or their player partners: sports betting companies hoping to sign a deal with one of Riot’s partner teams will need to be vetted by Riot. Those companies will also need to make use of GRID, a third-party esports data-gathering platform, who partnered with Riot in 2023. As Needham comments, “using clean, official data is critical to weakening black markets and stopping shady operators from taking advantage of fans and pros”. The teams themselves will need to set up an “Internal Integrity Program”, to ensure they don’t do anything dodgy, though Needham doesn’t specify what such a program might consist of.

While the sports betting sponsorship will only be available to Tier 1 League Of Legends or Valorant esports teams, “a portion of Riot’s revenues earned from the sports betting program” will be spent on prize pools, new tournaments and training for the Tier 2 bracket.

The last reassurance in the blog post is aimed at viewers: Riot-owned broadcast and social channels will remain “betting-free, which means no ads, no sponsored segments from betting partners, and no betting partner logos on team jerseys”, though this doesn’t appear to apply to co-streams. Teams will get to decide how sports betting shows up on their own channels “within the guidelines of the sponsorship program, content platform ToS, and local regulations”.

As Connor Makar unfolds over at Eurogamer, the context for these announcements is that the esports industry is in need of a cash injection, post-Covid-lockdowns and following the demise of the Overwatch League in particular. Riot and parent company Tencent are in the mood to boost their numbers, going by the language around recent layoffs. Still, none of this is really in the interest of everyday players and viewers, especially the many children who watch esports tournaments and follow the top teams. Gambling is a public health problem, and now, League Of Legends and Valorant are part of it.