Riot’s move to allow betting sponsorships is risky but reflects esports harsh reality – teams need funding. While safeguards like no jersey logos and vetting sponsors help, gambling’s dangers (addiction, integrity risks) remain. Will Riot’s “guardrails” be enough, or will this harm the community long-term? Fans deserve transparency and real protection, not just revenue-driven compromises
rejuicekeve
Gambling is ruining all sports. It’s a shame
_byrnes_
Well I don’t give a shit about esports and wish youd start putting more of the profit back into the damn game.
Blubbpaule
i always love “xyz community lashes out against dev/publisher”
Because most of the time it’s a few angry words online but they continue playing / buying.
AphidMan2
The reasons they give sounds a lot less like “We Need to bring this gambling into the spotlight so we can regulate it better” and more like “Look at all the money we are not making!”
Meh, maybe i’m a bit too jaded but i just don’t like this whole thing.
MentalNinjas
Again just a reminder that gambling is as debilitating an addiction as alcoholism and any company willingly bringing it into the spotlight should be treated as such
c0micsansfrancisco
What an awful company I’m glad uninstalled League.
Didn’t even make it hard for me the new skins are awful AI generated slop and all the gacha and crappy monetization that got worse after every patch just disgusted me
ChadBroChill229
Gambling is a cancer. Sad to see this spread to esports as well.
PhasmaFelis
The other day Reddit decided to randomly show me a post from a sub for recovering gaming addicts. This poor dude had to sell his laptop because he was so addicted that he couldn’t control himself if there was any hardware in the house that he could install Steam on, and it was ruining his life. It was so strange, I couldn’t understand it.
Then he mentioned that he had been a League player, and suddenly it all made sense.
Piltonbadger
>Riot says it’s doing so for a variety of reasons — one being that esports betting already exists across its competitive games, and according to Needham, “70% of bets across all sports are placed in unregulated markets with bookmakers who aren’t licensed.”
Translation : A metric shit ton of money that could be otherwise going into our pockets is going elsewhere and we are going to secure that bag.
BagadonutsImposter
Gambling is degenerate behavior 💅🏼
FootballPaPa
Serious question, why do people hate sport/gaming betting and loot boxes but turn a blind eye at Las Vegas and online poker?
I signed up for a online poker account when I was a kid with my parents money (not much but still) yet Reddit only seems to care about the gaming/sport side of it
FinasCupil
Play The Finals and DotA 2
PuzzleheadedPainOuch
Yeah like I’m not a fan of gambling either, but Riot has been losing money on esports forever, attempting to justify it by claiming it as “marketing spend”.
It’s pretty simple. There is no large-scale profitable esports scene in the world that does not have a close relationship with gambling. An easy one is Counter-Strike. I believe Mobile Legends is not deeply integrated with gambling, but they are incredibly close to Saudi Arabia, being sponsored by Qiddiya and playing some of the largest events in Riyadh.
Esports does not make money for the developer, by and large. As long as viewers are not willing to pay for access (as has been shown for decades), the developer will need to find alternative methods to gain revenue. Mainstream sponsors struggle to be effective for the same reason, what’s the point in advertising to young 20-something’s or teens that won’t even pay $5 for access to a stream? You think a Verizon sponsorship is gonna have a high ROI for Verizon?
So, the only sponsors that will actually make sense are Saudi Arabia, who aren’t concerned with ROI, and gambling, who can actually make a lot of money off young 20-something’s and below thanks to weak gambling regulations. It’s just a pretty simple flowchart to understand how we got to this point.
Captn4wesome
community’s been pretty vocal about this, doubt they’ll listen though
69WaysToFuck
Ah yes, people get scammed by unregulated gambling sites so we will scam them legally and promote gambling to much wider audience – Riot
17 Comments
Loot boxes and gacha just wasn’t enough lolol
Riot’s move to allow betting sponsorships is risky but reflects esports harsh reality – teams need funding. While safeguards like no jersey logos and vetting sponsors help, gambling’s dangers (addiction, integrity risks) remain. Will Riot’s “guardrails” be enough, or will this harm the community long-term? Fans deserve transparency and real protection, not just revenue-driven compromises
Gambling is ruining all sports. It’s a shame
Well I don’t give a shit about esports and wish youd start putting more of the profit back into the damn game.
i always love “xyz community lashes out against dev/publisher”
Because most of the time it’s a few angry words online but they continue playing / buying.
The reasons they give sounds a lot less like “We Need to bring this gambling into the spotlight so we can regulate it better” and more like “Look at all the money we are not making!”
Meh, maybe i’m a bit too jaded but i just don’t like this whole thing.
Again just a reminder that gambling is as debilitating an addiction as alcoholism and any company willingly bringing it into the spotlight should be treated as such
What an awful company I’m glad uninstalled League.
Didn’t even make it hard for me the new skins are awful AI generated slop and all the gacha and crappy monetization that got worse after every patch just disgusted me
Gambling is a cancer. Sad to see this spread to esports as well.
The other day Reddit decided to randomly show me a post from a sub for recovering gaming addicts. This poor dude had to sell his laptop because he was so addicted that he couldn’t control himself if there was any hardware in the house that he could install Steam on, and it was ruining his life. It was so strange, I couldn’t understand it.
Then he mentioned that he had been a League player, and suddenly it all made sense.
>Riot says it’s doing so for a variety of reasons — one being that esports betting already exists across its competitive games, and according to Needham, “70% of bets across all sports are placed in unregulated markets with bookmakers who aren’t licensed.”
Translation : A metric shit ton of money that could be otherwise going into our pockets is going elsewhere and we are going to secure that bag.
Gambling is degenerate behavior 💅🏼
Serious question, why do people hate sport/gaming betting and loot boxes but turn a blind eye at Las Vegas and online poker?
I signed up for a online poker account when I was a kid with my parents money (not much but still) yet Reddit only seems to care about the gaming/sport side of it
Play The Finals and DotA 2
Yeah like I’m not a fan of gambling either, but Riot has been losing money on esports forever, attempting to justify it by claiming it as “marketing spend”.
It’s pretty simple. There is no large-scale profitable esports scene in the world that does not have a close relationship with gambling. An easy one is Counter-Strike. I believe Mobile Legends is not deeply integrated with gambling, but they are incredibly close to Saudi Arabia, being sponsored by Qiddiya and playing some of the largest events in Riyadh.
Esports does not make money for the developer, by and large. As long as viewers are not willing to pay for access (as has been shown for decades), the developer will need to find alternative methods to gain revenue. Mainstream sponsors struggle to be effective for the same reason, what’s the point in advertising to young 20-something’s or teens that won’t even pay $5 for access to a stream? You think a Verizon sponsorship is gonna have a high ROI for Verizon?
So, the only sponsors that will actually make sense are Saudi Arabia, who aren’t concerned with ROI, and gambling, who can actually make a lot of money off young 20-something’s and below thanks to weak gambling regulations. It’s just a pretty simple flowchart to understand how we got to this point.
community’s been pretty vocal about this, doubt they’ll listen though
Ah yes, people get scammed by unregulated gambling sites so we will scam them legally and promote gambling to much wider audience – Riot