Apologies for the twitter link, but alternative frontends seem to not be able to display the content, here's the full text
Update : fixed with proper link
Spoiler
We’re opening up betting sponsorship opportunities for Tier 1 LoL and VALORANT teams in the Americas and EMEA with safeguards to protect competitive integrity and the fan experience.
By John Needham, President of Publishing & Esports
At Riot, we’ve always believed that building the future of esports means investing in a sustainable ecosystem, not just for today, but for the long run. That’s why we’re focused on supporting the players, teams, and the fans who fuel it all. In 2023, I shared our vision for building a sustainable future for our esports ecosystem and later followed up with specific changes, like a new partnership model and deeper work to unlock more predictable revenue streams and sponsorship opportunities for partner teams.
One area that’s been on our radar and that teams have been asking us to consider for years is sports betting as a sponsor category. Today, I want to share why we’re opening up the betting sponsorship category for Tier 1 LoL and VALORANT teams in the Americas and EMEA — and what we’re doing to make sure it’s done the right way.
Why Sports Betting & Why Now
We know sports betting isn’t for everyone, and that some fans have strong feelings about it, and we respect that. 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. 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.
Sports betting – and more specifically, esports betting – is a space that more fans choose to engage with every year. According to Sportradar, the total betting turnover globally involving just LoL Esports and VCT reached $10.7 billion in 2024. But here’s the problem: 70% of bets across all sports are placed in unregulated markets with bookmakers who aren’t licensed.
We believe 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.
Our Approach: Guardrails First
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. This means fully owning our decision to unlock this category by establishing a well-researched sports betting partnership program that:
- Answers the call from our partner teams to open up sponsorship opportunities with betting brands to generate additional revenue for their financial health.
- Guides and supports the development of regulations, monitoring best practices, and educational programs that protect the integrity of esports teams, pros, fans, and events.
- Strengthens and reinforces the competitive integrity standards of our esports competitions by improving our ability to monitor betting activity for violations of our policies.
Our ability to meet these goals means we have to equip teams with the right tools and guidance to effectively navigate the sports betting sponsorship space in a manner that protects the fan and esports event experience.
Here are the highlights of how we are engaging sports betting partners:
- Vet and Approve all Potential Sports Betting Partners
Before any potential sports betting partner can pursue a partnership with a partnered team, they must be vetted and approved by Riot. It’s important to us to bring the same razor of scrutiny to all betting brands interested in our teams.
- Build on our Established Official Partnership with GRID
For a digital-first sport like esports, using clean, official data is critical to weakening black markets and stopping shady operators from taking advantage of fans and pros. That’s why, in 2023, we established a global partnership and investment in GRID to create a single, trusted source of esports data for teams and commercial partners, including betting operators. Any potential betting partner must use GRID to power their offerings, ensuring consistency, integrity, and accountability across the board.
- Mandate Team Integrity Program Checks
As part of our broader sponsorship guidelines, we’ve established a requirement for teams to create and assess their own Internal Integrity Program — one that aligns with our expectations to:
- Ensure competitive integrity
- Safeguard players and young audiences
- Uphold responsible betting practices
Integrity isn’t something Riot can uphold alone; it’s a shared responsibility across the entire ecosystem. Teams pursuing betting partnerships must have established an integrity program inclusive of policy development, monitoring, and education. They must also assess if this, like all other partnerships, makes sense for their brand and fans.
- Support and Foster our Tier 2 Esports Ecosystem
While sponsorships are only open to Tier 1 LoL Esports and VCT teams in Americas and EMEA, the overall program will support the growth and advancement of our Tier 2 esports teams. A portion of Riot’s revenues earned from the sports betting program will be invested back into Tier 2 across a number of areas including:
- Increasing prize pools and creating new tournaments to support aspiring pros
- Additional integrity system developments
- Expanded training and education programs for our partner tournament operators and aspiring pros
We’re Protecting the Viewing Experience
The last thing we want to do is disrupt LoL Esports and VCT broadcasts with an influx of sports betting ads. So we’ve established at the onset that Riot-owned broadcast and social channels will stay betting-free, which means no ads, no sponsored segments from betting partners, and no betting partner logos on team jerseys. It will be up to each team to craft how sports betting related content shows up on their channels within the guidelines of the sponsorship program, content platform ToS, and local regulations.
Looking Ahead
We believe that showing up in this space — responsibly — is better than letting others define it for us.
We’ve said before that Riot is all in for the long term on our esports, and that means stepping into arenas like sports betting with an objective to both guide and protect our brands from bad actors by establishing what good looks like, while also providing an avenue for teams to benefit financially.
With any new endeavor, there will be challenges, and if we need to make adjustments, we will. Please know our overall commitment is to do right by our players, teams, and fans as well as the world-class esports experience that we’ve built together and want to see thrive for years to come.