Riot Games officially embraces sports betting sponsorships for League of Legends and Valorant

Sports betting has now been officially embraced by one of the biggest companies powering the Esports scene, Riot Games, as the company has put out a new article detailing how it intends to adopt betting sponsorships in its titles "responsibly".

Esports and sports betting have been kept separate for quite some time, but Riot Games has just changed that with a new announcement stating that the company is now embracing gaming sponsorships. This means that Tier 1 League of Legends and Valorant teams are now allowed to pursue sports betting sponsorships. The change has come after professional teams have asked Riot to reconsider its stance on engaging with betting companies, which was previously prohibited.

Riot President of Publishing and Esports John Needham explained that, after years of analysis, Riot has decided to start engaging with betting companies, as betting activity has already existed around Riot's Esports, whether Riot is involved in it or not.

Needham cited a statistic from Sportradar, which stated global betting turnover involving just League of Legends Esports and VCT reached $10.7 billion in 2024. Riot is missing out on potentially billions of dollars by not being involved, and it's far less safe for fans engaging as "70% of bets across all sports are placed in unregulated markets with bookmakers who aren't licensed," writes Needham.

So, how is Riot going to approach integrating sports betting responsibly?

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Here are the highlights of how we are engaging sports betting partners:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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