League of Legends and Valorant esports might look quite different moving forward with Riot Games reportedly set to allow betting companies to sponsor teams in official leagues.
Gambling of any kind is a historically touchy subject. That’s especially been the case in video games where streamers have fought with fans over playing slots on-air and loot boxes are reflexively criticized. Riot Games, for its part, has opted to steer away from gambling and betting entirely and block them out of Valorant and League of Legends while welcoming non-endemic brands en masse.
That’s seemingly about to change, however. According to former team owner Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles, Riot is set to relax its restrictions regarding betting sponsors in its esports leagues. This carries big implications, both positive and negative.
According to esports commentator MonteCristo, Valorant and League of Legends are set to allow teams to have betting sponsors. This marks a major about-face from Riot Games, but aligns with the general trend across esports.
“Riot will be allowing esports teams to have betting sponsors in League of Legends and Valorant in 2025. Gambling companies interested in sponsoring teams will have to be approved by Riot and will not be allowed to place logos on team uniforms,” he stated in a post on X.
Esports and sports betting sites have been closely linked, much to the chagrin of some fans. These sites are often the biggest sponsors of esports organizations, with their logos often taking up more real estate on jerseys than those of the actual team. This is the case across almost every major esport, from Dota 2 to Counter-Strike to Apex Legends.
League of Legends and Valorant are among the few remaining holdouts. This has been a welcome distinction among fans, but not necessarily among other stakeholders in these games.
The money from sports betting sites is integral to the existence of many esports organizations and while prominent organizations have stuck around for a long while, they’ve also left money on the table by not taking on sports betting sponsors. This has also had a negative impact on esports players as well, who have seen salaries decline from the multi-million-dollar highs seen from 2019 to 2021.
It remains to be seen how lucrative these sponsorships will be, or what kind of impact they’ll have on organization revenues or player salaries. MonteCristo added that this change would be “good for stabilizing team economics.”
It’s also unclear what this new dynamic would look like in action. In other esports, organizations and betting sites will sometimes effectively co-sponsor teams similar to Dplus-Kia. MonteCristo stated that logos cannot appear on jerseys, so it’s unknown what sort of value offering there could be for prospective sponsors.
Fans, and organizations, will likely have to wait and see to see what this looks like in action.
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