In-Depth
World Congress 2020: Naz Aletaha
Head of Global Esports Partnerships, Riot Games
Riot Games’ North American league has a huge following among the 18-to-34 demographic.getty images
On the impact of pandemic:
AletahaRiot Games
We were one of the first sports impacted because we own and operate a very large league out in China, the LPL. And so they were the first league within our ecosystem to have to suspend competitions; that was around late January given the coronavirus. But about 30 days later, they were able to come back through just an online-only format, and it was during that time that we quickly realized, just globally, that this was going to be a situation that would likely expand to other regions, if not all regions. And so, we knew it was something we needed to prepare for, and because our leagues are set up in such a globally integrated way, we quickly were able to share best practices.
… You’re going to see essentially our competitions continue, you’ll see pro players competing at home, from their homes. Same with the crew. Same with our on-air broadcast talent. Everybody’s going to work remote. And today, our top four regions, North America, Europe, China and Korea, are all back online and they’re able to continue to deliver to fans. It’s not a one-for-one exact same experience, we really love the fact that sports really bring communities together in arenas, but in the absence of that we’re really happy that we can keep serving our fan base all over the world.
On communicating with sponsors:
The fact that we are digital first has enabled us to continue to deliver value back to our sponsors through our online competitions. We’re seeing that the integrations and everything that comes with those partnerships can continue on through the online broadcast. And then we stay very closely in touch with our sponsors every single week as to how we’re thinking about the rest of the season, how we think about our global events, and how we think about all the contingency plans that go along with it.
On important breakthroughs in esports:
Esports has grown to a scale that’s probably difficult at this point to ignore. The average-minute audience of our world final last year was 21.8 million people who tuned in to that one day of competition. The LCS, which is our North American league, is the third most popular sport in the U.S. among the 18-to-34 demographic. And I said sport, yes, they are only behind the NFL and the NBA. The long-term growth potential that esports has proven, and the ability to reach and influence this generation of fans who are increasingly harder and harder to reach through other mediums, is something that marketers and brand partners really recognize. And we’ve seen them embrace it, embrace the power of the platform and embrace the scale and reach that it offers. …
We’ve seen other brands like Oppo, who has made huge strides in Asia and now sponsoring Wimbledon and other sports in Europe, come in and invest. We’ve seen Axe come in, Red Bull come in, State Farm. Nike came in, in a big way in supporting the Chinese league. Most recently, last year we had Louis Vuitton join our roster of partners, which is incredibly exciting.
