eSports. Mastercard announced a multi-year global sponsorship deal with League of Legends

League of Legends is one of the world’s most famous game. There are about 100 million unique monthly users and its most-watched match pulling in over 80 million live unique viewers. There are about 380 million eSports fans worldwide according to market researcher Newzoo.

The deal will see Mastercard work with Riot to offer live-event activations and fan experiences across three major annual League of Legends tournaments: the Mid-Season Invitational, the All-Star Event, and the World Championship.

“eSports is a phenomenon that continues to grow in popularity, with fans that can rival those at any major sporting event in their enthusiasm and energy,” said Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s chief marketing and communications officer.

“This deal made a lot of sense for us. We’re a global brand and League of Legends is a global phenomenon so the scale is there. In-game purchases are a big part of eSports, and we are a payment solutions company.”

“We’re thrilled to team up with Mastercard on this groundbreaking partnership that will provide meaningful and long-term value to our fans,” said Naz Aletaha, head of eSports partnerships at Riot Games. “Mastercard is among the first of world-class brands to take such a big step into eSports at the global level, and we’re proud to have them support League of Legends eSports events alongside their other premier sports and entertainment sponsorships.”

Said Rajamannar: “We took two years to fully understand this space because we wanted to be clear how the consumers think. And what we found out is that they want brands to be authentic, organic and creative. So this collaboration is not just about how many cards we must sell but a long-term effort to engage consumers.”

Mastercard is also planning to launch a co-branded League of Legends credit card early next year.

Source: Straistimes