Riot Games will allow LoL and VALORANT betting sponsorships in 2025
Riot Games will be allowing betting sponsors in both League of Legends and VALORANT in 2025. From next year, teams will be allowed to have betting sponsors, while gambling companies interested in sponsoring teams would have to be approved by Riot Games and would not be allowed to place logos on team uniforms.
Recently reported by Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles and confirmed by Riot Games COO Whalen Rozelle, the breakdown of rules goes as follows:
- Riot-owned channels will stay betting-free. No betting brands will appear on our broadcasts, socials, or jerseys.
- Riot will vet all potential betting partners to meet our standards for integrity, transparency, and fan engagement. All sports books partnering with teams will need to meet local regulatory and licensing requirements and match Riot requirements around content and promotion for this category.
Whalen Rozelle added:
This is a new sponsorship category for our esports, and we’ll approach it thoughtfully. We’ll learn a lot along the way, and we’ll make changes if at any point this compromises the integrity of the sport or impacts the high-quality experience our fans have today. Depending on how this initial implementation goes, we’ll evaluate opportunities to expand—or refine—our approach in the future.
Riot Games loosens sponsorship restrictions
The move comes as an expansion of earlier laxening of sponsorship restrictions in March 2024 that saw Riot Games permit LoL and VALORANT teams be sponsored by beer and wine products, Cannabidiol (CBD), and government related entities – so long as those products and entities were legal within the team’s region.
Riot has long held a tight grasp on the regulations behind its flagship esports products, such as the LCS, LEC, and VCT leagues. These have included sponsor category restrictions, and overseeing team jerseys and logos. Now, with the ever-unanswered question of just how to make esports more financially viable, Riot Games seems open to expanding sponsorship opportunities for esports teams.
However, it’s understandable that Riot might be hesitant to engage with more controversial sponsor options. In 2020, the company came under fire for a prospective partnership with Saudi Arabian city Neom, before ending the sponsorship after backlash.
In late 2023, the company once again floated a similar deal, for a League of Legends tournament to take place at the Saudi-backed Esports World Cup in 2024. This time, the reaction wasn’t strong enough to force a reversal. League of Legends was a flagship event at the first edition of the Esports World Cup, and LoL and VALORANT are all expected to be announced for the EWC 2025.
With the sentiment of esports changing, and consumers more willing to accept these controversial sponsors, Riot has decided that even formerly taboo partnerships are on the table – albeit with the typical high level of control the company is known to exert over almost every aspect of its esports product.
