Riot Looking To Partner With MLB Advanced Media On Streaming Deal For League of Legends

Jason Winter
By Jason Winter, News Editor Posted:
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E-sports are a pretty big deal. Making money from e-sports, however... that's something even the big names, like Riot Games, have yet to master. Big e-sports pushes are often referred to as "marketing expenses" meant to generate interest in the main game, not produce revenue on their own in the way that, say, a Major League Baseball game does.

Riot Games may be looking to change that soon, though, with the help of a division of Major League Baseball. The L.A. Times reports that Riot is close to finalizing a $200 million deal with Major League Baseball Advanced Media "to sell streaming rights for e-sports matches," which could have major ramifications (one expert called it "a groundbreaking moment") on how people consume their e-sports content.

While advertising revenue for Twitch streams is not insignificant, it likely pales in comparison to what major sports leagues get for all the beer and truck ads you see on a typical TV broadcast. By affiliating themselves with a branch of Major League Baseball (Disney and the NHL also hold smaller stakes in the company behind the streaming tech), Riot could likely draw upon more of those high-yield ads as well as introduce a paid service -- possibly via a specialized app -- to provide even more revenue that directly comes from viewers.

Your first thought is likely, "So they're going to charge us for what we can get now for free on Twitch?" Riot likely isn't stupid enough to cut off its millions of viewers of free content, but an app could provide extra content, such as advanced stat tracking, access to replays, additional commentary, camera views, etc. In other words, it could paint itself as a premium service, for the ultra-hardcore League of Legends fans who want more out of their broadcast, much like advanced cable and satellite packages for sports that offer similar features for superfans; the "basic" level of coverage could remain free. In any case, Riot reducing its reliance on Twitch is a definite plus.

It's going to be interesting to see if this proposed partnership bears fruit, and what it will mean for the burgeoning e-sports phenomenon as a whole. Very few other e-sports-committed companies could afford this kind of partnership -- Blizzard and Wargaming strike me as the only other two that might have a chance -- though I could see a media company starting up an "e-sports channel" that covers a variety of smaller games from multiple publishers. In the meantime, what do you think of Riot's potentially big move?

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In this article: League of Legends, Riot Games.

About the Author

Jason Winter
Jason Winter, News Editor

Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

More Stories by Jason Winter

Discussion (5)

mstter 7 years ago
Honestly, this game became a shell of its former self since season 4. And to boot, the community is a toxic cesspool of hate and depression. It's not surprising to me that people still play it, I mean COD still has an active multiplayer community and that series was shit since MW2.

Levi 7 years ago
League of Legends is an ever changing battleground of patches the game will be better once there is a leveled playing field of when patches come and go. To many patches for it to become a MLG E-Sport game. Don't change champions stats because you couldn't make item stat's correct or have a good correlation with current version stat's on certain champions. I think its unique that League of Legends has made enough money to have a chance to go to the public television and other sources on television, and it could be great for the game and for Riots future in other games to come, but of course the game still needs improvement before going straight into a game sport that could be potentially played in middle-high school as a true sport since its already being played in college level gaming. "*Things will change when progress is made like always, and nothing will be the same at the end. Vanilla game to mocha in weeks then mocha to vanilla in months then after a year full blown mocha that is so good that it has hints and subtle changes that disguises itself as an vanilla game." *Game has to many patches, and many balance changes that give not a real sense of understanding what makes a champion good or progression.

BigCris 7 years ago
Skt lose the kespa Camp semi-finals for rox by 3-0.

WhoCares 7 years ago
Wow so now people can pay extra to watch SKT win another worlds again again. I stopped watch Prof LoL after s4 because SKT always wins its more entertaining to watch Dota.

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