Schalke 04 sells LEC franchise for $30 million to Team BDS

William Davis Published 29/06/2021

Schalke 04 will officially be leaving the LEC after the ongoing 2021 competitive season. 

After months of speculation, it’s now official that Schalke 04 has sold its LEC spot to the Swiss organization Team BDS for €26.5 million ($31.5 million). Schalke 04 had to sell the spot due to “battle the financial pressure” that the football club has faced after being relegated from the German Bundesliga. Taking over the coveted spot in the top European league will be Team BDS, who has been participating in the French LFL national league since the start of 2021. 

In its official statement, Schalke 04 says that it’s with “great sadness” that it must depart the LEC after the 2021 LEC Summer Split. Over recent months, Schalke has considered several solutions to keep the spot but unfortunately couldn’t work out an alternative. 

“Starting in 2022, Team BDS will join the LEC,” Schalke 04 said. “The LEC license will be sold for €26.5 million. We wish Team BDS the best of luck and lots of success in Europe’s greatest esports league.”

Schalke also thanked the “numerous applicants” that participated in the process, which indicates that other organizations were interested in buying the spot. Since the LEC turned into a franchised league, the value of a spot has increased rapidly. 

Schalke 04 joined the LEC in 2016 and has since then been part of building the league to what it is today. Schalke’s best result was during the 2018 LEC Summer Split, where Schalke went all the way to the finals before losing to Fnatic. Despite being very close several times, Schalke has never represented Europe at the World Championship but will still have a chance to do so in 2021 before leaving the scene. 

Schalke is currently struggling to keep up in the LEC, sitting at a 2-5 record after the first three weeks. According to Schalke, the team will continue competing with all it has until the split ends. The goal is to send the organization off with a bang. 

Team BDS will enter the league in Schalke’s place next year and likely field a revamped roster. Team BDS is currently fighting for the LFL trophy, with some promising talent on its roster. With that said, the LEC will be a big step up for the team and likely require some upgrades in both management and players. Who Team BDS will be playing with is still unknown, but it’s expected that it will look towards the huge talent pool from LFL and current Schalke members.  

Team BDS will play its first LEC game next year when the 2022 LEC Spring Split kicks off. 

Read Also

League of Legends

The 2026 LoL Worlds Swiss Stage Explained Ben Boland In 2026, the League of Legends World Championship returns with the same format that it adopted in 2023. Apart from play-in rules evolving each year, the rest is identical to 2025. So here’s the 2026 LoL Worlds Swiss Stage explained. The Swiss Stage replaces the former Group Stage as the start of the main event of the League of Legends World Championship. 16 teams compete in it, and by the ...

League of Legends

LoL Worlds Qualified Teams — All 19 Teams at Worlds 2026 Ben Boland The 2026 League of Legends World Championship is just around the corner and 19 teams from across the globe will duke it out in North America. This year offers plenty of great storylines, as T1 vies for their fourth in a row, Chovy tries to overcome his demons, and the West tries to rise. Let’s take a look at the 19 teams that have qualified for Worlds 2026. The tournament sees ...

League of Legends

LoL Worlds Prize Pool: How Much Is the 2026 Winner Getting? Hannan Mundia The 2026 League of Legends World Championship is about to begin and it is one of the game’s most anticipated tournament of the year. With 19 of the best teams battling it out, fans may wonder how large the 2026 Worlds LoL prize pool is. Being one of the largest esports games, it makes sense that there are multiple League of Legends tournaments throughout the year. Even setting the three ...

League of Legends

GAM Esports vs Shopify Rebellion: Best Odds and Predictions for the Demacia Cup Global Invitational Ben Boland In the third round of the Demacia Cup Global Invitational, the three teams with a record of 0-2 play a Round Robin among each other. Only the team winning both of their matches gets to advance to round four, so these are two back-to-back elimination series for the teams. GAM Esports will have already played one, while Shopify Rebellion is on their first. Here are our predictions for GAM vs ...

League of Legends

GAM Esports vs Team Vitality: Best Odds and Predictions for the Demacia Cup Global Invitational Ben Boland The Demacia Cup Global Invitational is a brand new tournament in League of Legends. The next best teams that didn’t make it to the World Championship have their own mini-Worlds, to determine the best of the rest. So far, Korea and China have kept winning as always. Looking at leading sportsbook GGBet, here are our predictions and the best bets to pick for GAM Esports vs Team Vitality. GAM used ...

Esports Betting

Team Liquid vs LYON: Best betting odds and picks for LCS 2026 grand final Hannan Mundia The LCS grand final will finally pit Lyon and Team Liquid against each other, with the winner walking away with this year’s LCS trophy. After LYON made a statement victory over Cloud9, the team advanced to the grand final to face Team Liquid. Both teams have already qualified for Worlds, but the winner will take this year’s LCS trophy and get a major confidence boost before the year’s largest League of ...

Esports Betting

Cloud9 vs LYON: Best Betting Odds and Picks for LCS 2026 Lower Bracket Final Hannan Mundia The 2026 LCS Summer playoffs are close to concluding, but Cloud9 and LYON will battle it out to decide the grand final matchup. Only one spot is left in the 2026 LCS grand final. Cloud9 and LYON have done well to make it this far, even if LYON is the favorite to win the match. Still, looking at the recent match histories of both teams, there’s a good chance that ...