Rumor: Riot Games will allow betting sponsors in Valorant Rumors
2023-03-15 14:59:00Riot Games might allow teams to have betting sponsorship in the future. Such information was provided by the Turkish esports website Esporkolok, citing their sources.
The message explicitly mentions Valorant, so it's unclear if there will be a similar rule for League of Legends, Riot's biggest esports title.
Riot Games currently strictly forbids betting or gambling deals within its esports titles, League of Legends and Valorant. Ninjas in Pyjamas had to drop their sponsorship with Betway in the past because of this. It is unclear what might've caused a shift in Riot's attitude. The rumored "esports winter" indicating an overall market drop might be the cause.
In the current state of things, Valorant teams should have an easier time than League of Legends partners as they didn't pay franchising fees and were promised a stipend to help their business. Also, the salaries in this market should be lower than in LoL at the moment.
Riot also had a similar but weirdly executed policy on cryptocurrency. In 2021, Riot Games' LCS league entered a partnership with the now-collapsed FTX exchange, despite prohibiting crypto company sponsorships. TSM still did cooperate with the same FTX but was restricted from promoting it in Riot's events.
