Riot’s New Gambling Rules Lead to Backlash

League of legends developer Riot Gaming has revised its gambling rules and the player community is far from thrilled. 

Riot says it will put certain “guardrails” in place while promising to vet and approve the gambling companies who want to sponsor teams.  They will also restrict ads for gambling on official channels and bar gambling sponsors from putting their logos on team jerseys.

Riot will allow esports gambling sponsorships for Tear 1 League of Legends and Valorant teams in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

According to Riot's President of Publishing, John Needham, “70% of bets across all sports are placed in unregulated markets with bookmakers who aren’t licensed.

“We believe it’s better to engage in allowing betting sponsorships — thoughtfully, carefully, and with the right protections — than to sit on the sidelines while risks to fans and integrity go unchecked,” Needham wrote in a post on Riot’s website.

Needham says that League of Legends and Valorant esports teams have pushed for the change in allowing sports betting sponsors “to open up sponsorship opportunities with betting brands to generate additional revenue for their financial health.” 

He added: “The last thing we want to do is disrupt LoL Esports and VCT broadcasts with an influx of sports betting ads,” Needham says. “So we’ve established at the onset that Riot-owned broadcast and social channels will stay betting-free, which means no ads, no sponsored segments from betting partners, and no betting partner logos on team jerseys. It will be up to each team to craft how sports betting related content shows up on their channels within the guidelines of the sponsorship program, content platform ToS, and local regulations.”

Those on Reddit worry about  increased toxicity, match fixing, and gambling addiction as a result of the new policy. 

AlphidMan2 writes: "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"

Ohwrongdoer8719 had this to offer: "eSports betting, especially in Asia is massive. It’s to the point where the most popular pro players literally can’t play the game normally because their every match is being bet on and of course there are people contacting the players in their games to try and influence outcomes as a result. It’s a huge industry that is generating obscene revenue, so Riot might as well tap into it. I don’t like it, but our actual lawmakers are becoming more and more lax about betting in general so."