Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: Lagardère Sports, League of Legends, League of Legends European Championship, lol, Riot Games

What to Expect from the League of Legends and Lagardère Partnership

Riot Games announced a multi-year partnership with sports marketing agency Lagardère Sports today. Riot will be working with Lagardère on the League of Legends European Championship to commercialize the newly established LEC, which is the governing body for all League of Legends competitions in Europe. The end goal of the partnership, however, is to see the League European Championship and Lagardère work to further develop esports in Europe–which is a very admirable, but very broad goal.

And we have so many questions.

The announcement also came with a slew of commentary from various memebers of the Riot Games EU and Lagardère Sports teams, though the statements are all pretty darn vague.

"Riot Games has always been a pioneer in esports, and our rebranded League of Legends European Championship (LEC) is one of the leading esports leagues in the world. Our pros, storytelling and competition offer brands the best possible opportunities to enter esports," says Alban Dechelotte, Head of Sponsorship & Business Development Europe at Riot Games. "This partnership will see us working hand in hand with Lagardère Sports to enter the next level of brand partnerships in European esports." 

"With 100 million active players, League of Legends is one of the leading game titles in the world while Riot Games is one of the leading game publishers globally and a true visionary in esports." says Robert Müller von Vultejus, Managing Director Lagardère Sports Germany and Head of Business Development Europe at Lagardère. "At Lagardère Sports our goals have always been to help brands with their individual needs and enable them to reach out to their target groups. We are committed to impact their business in the best possible way through marketing activities in sports."

"The partnership with the League of Legends European Championship is truly a milestone in our endeavours to establish Lagardère Sports as the leading sports marketing agency in esports in Europe. We have been an integral part of the professionalisation in sports for more than two decades. For the past two years we have been transferring this knowledge into esports and we are very much looking forward to taking this to the next level. As the exclusive sponsorship agency for the LEC, we are the go-to platform for League of Legends esports partnerships in Europe. We identified esports as one of our key drivers for the future and we will certainly do more in this exciting environment of new sports." 

"League of Legends fans tend to be young, digital, and innovative and therefore very much interesting for numerous premium brands and advertisers. The LEC creates for the first time in Europe a sustainable, and plannable esports ecosystem around a video gaming title that will very much take away a lot of questions marks that brands might have in the past when thinking about entering esports. We are convinced that the LEC offers the best structured eco-system for brands and companies for successful sponsorships in esports in Europe. We are even more excited that we will be abletoannouncenumerouspartnershipsfortheupcomingseasonstartingon18t h ofJanuary",adds Moritz Altmann, Senior Director Esports at Lagardère Sports.

Now, this news is rather intriguing for two reasons: First, any time companies try to run esports the way they do traditional sports, it ends up going sideways; and secondly, the thought of "unique" sponsorship ideas of League of Legends is the kind of thing we really just want to watch happen. After all, Riot Games has been known to take part in some very weird marketing schemes in the past. The League of Legends Mastercard comes to mind, for one.

As part of the partnership with Riot, Lagardère is tasked with establishing long-term partnerships between brands and the LEC. So the hope is that League tournaments in Europe will get the kind of sponsorship you normally see in more traditional sports. Those plans include "innovative sponsorship concepts" that guarantee brands to reach a new target demographic. Which is to say, the sponsors will not likely be gaming related at all, and instead come from brands that typically don't reach the gamer audience.

Which could be anything from luxury fashion brands to steakhouses–the kinds of things that aren't often associated with the major gaming public.

Within the next few days, Lagardère and Riot Games EU will announce several brand partnerships for the LEC. And it will certainly be baffling.

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