Riot Video games has introduced that it’ll start formally sanctioning sports-betting sponsorships for esports groups in its Tier 1 League of Legends and Valorant leagues. Whereas the corporate states that it nonetheless will not permit commercials in its official broadcasts, groups themselves will have the ability to take cash from sports-betting corporations for promoting by means of their very own channels.
In a blog post, President of Publishing and Esports John Needham writes that the transfer is designed to make the most of the quickly rising sports-betting business and to make esports-related betting extra regulated. Seemingly to handle considerations and head off potential criticism, Needham explains that the corporate is authorizing sports-betting sponsorships below a “guardrails first” technique.
These “guardrails,” Needham states, are primarily the foundations by which any sponsorship have to be executed. First, sports-betting corporations should be vetted and permitted by Riot itself, though the corporate has not shared the standards on which this vetting is finished. Second, to make sure that sports-betting corporations are on a degree taking part in area, Riot is mandating that official companions all use GRID, the formally sanctioned knowledge platform for League of Legends and Valorant. Third, esports groups should launch and preserve inner integrity packages to guard in opposition to violations of league guidelines because of the affect of sports activities betting. Fourth and final, Riot will use a number of the income from these sponsorships to help its Tier 2 (decrease division) esports leagues.
One of many largest sources of tension and frustration across the explosion of sports activities betting in the USA has been the more and more excessive frequency of sports-betting promoting, and Riot addresses this concern by promising to not have adverts from these corporations in “Riot-owned broadcast and social channels.” This additionally signifies that groups won’t be allowed to have sports-betting adverts on group member jerseys. The one place these adverts will have the ability to run are on team-owned channels. As Needham explains, “It will likely be as much as every group to craft how sports-betting-related content material reveals up on their channels throughout the tips of the sponsorship program, content material platform ToS [terms of service], and native laws.”
The corporate’s justification for authorizing sports-betting sponsorships seems to middle on a need to handle underground, unofficial, or in any other case unauthorized betting networks and organizations. “Sports activities betting–and extra particularly, esports betting–is an area that extra followers select to have interaction with yearly,” Needham writes. “Based on Sportradar, the whole betting turnover globally involving simply LoL Esports and VCT reached $10.7 billion in 2024. However here is the issue: 70% of bets throughout all sports activities are positioned in unregulated markets with bookmakers who aren’t licensed.”
As such, the corporate hopes that it may well convey extra of this exercise below the auspices of the corporate, the place it hopes to exert some regulatory affect (and, one would suspect, have the ability to accumulate extra of the income that flows by means of sports-betting apps).
Regardless of the weblog submit’s efforts to emphasise defending esports integrity, although, Needham and Riot haven’t addressed any of the social points which were brought on by the expansion of sports activities betting all through the nation. An NCAA-sponsored research, for instance, discovered that growing harassment of school athletes in the USA could be primarily attributed to anger and disappointment related to sports betting. This dynamic could also be even worse alongside gendered strains; some proof means that betting-related harassment disproportionately targets women. Riot has but to state if it should take any specific precautions to mitigate potential harms brought on by sports activities betting; most of its emphasis to this point seems to be assuaging fears about match fixing or different threats to esports integrity.