Each month, Esports Insider recaps the biggest esports sponsorship and partnership news from the month prior. Below is our list of the biggest partnerships from November 2022.
November was a hectic month for esports partnerships. News was dominated by the downfall of prolific esports sponsor FTX, which saw esports’ biggest ever partnership deals cancelled. Additionally, Blizzard Entertainment and Riot Games ended major regional distribution partnerships with NetEase and Garena, respectively.
Yet multiple mainstream non-endemic names activated in the space, too, including EE, Netflix, Magnum, Ticketmaster, Inter Milan and many more.
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Spotlighted story:
North American esports organisation TSM has suspended its major $210m (~£148m) naming rights partnership with beleaguered cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
TSM announced that the organisation had suspended its FTX partnership effective immediately. FTX branding will no longer appear on any TSM jerseys, social media channels nor, most notably, in its name.
Brazilian esports organisation FURIA discontinued its sponsorship deal with cryptocurrency exchange FTX, FURIA’s Co-Founder André Akkari has announced on Twitter.
The decision was made after FTX, which also sponsors US organisation TSM and the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), filed for bankruptcy.
Game publisher Blizzard Entertainment has announced that its 14 years-old licensing relationship with Chinese tech company NetEase is coming to an end in December 2022.
As it stands, Blizzard’s games — including esports titles like Overwatch, Starcraft and Hearthstone — will not be available in China as of January 2023.
Game publisher Riot Games has announced that it will self-publish League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics in Southeast Asia in 2023, ending its partnership with game developer Garena.
The decision will largely affect the games’ SEA player bases, however the announcement will also impact the League of Legends ecosystem in Southeast Asia. Riot Games will take over the ownership and operations of the Vietnam Championship Series (VCS). The Pacific Championship Series remains unaffected as it was already owned and run by Riot Games.
British esports organisation Fnatic has announced a strategic partnership, as well as investment, from cryptocurrency asset manager Hivemind Capital.
The deal is part of a funding round that includes a raft of other cryptocurrency organisations, ranging from metaverse platform GuildFi to gaming and Web3 investment fund WW Ventures.
British esports organisation EXCEL ESPORTS and mobile network operator EE have renewed their partnership for a further three years.
After first teaming up with EXCEL in 2020, EE will continue as the organisation’s lead partner until 2025.
Italian football team Inter Milan has enlisted esports organisation Mkers to increase its presence in esports.
According to the announcement, the club aims to further develop its esports ambitions and will utilise the assistance of Mkers to improve its esports segment in the future. As a result of the partnership, the two companies will collaborate on a new eFootball roster.
Esports tournament organiser and esports production company BLAST has announced five partners for the BLAST Premier Fall Final, set to take place in Copenhagen this November.
Video platform Netflix, Nordic retailer Elgiganten, Magnum Ice Cream, hardware brand OMEN and snack brand Doritos have all been named as partners for the CS:GO event.
Ticketmaster, a global event ticket platform, has announced a partnership with the ESL FACEIT Group ahead of the IEM Katowice tournament in 2023.
Ticketmaster will be the official ticketing partner and deliver ticketing technology for the event through Ticketmaster Poland, a local subsidiary of the company. Tickets are already on sale.
Multinational esports organisation Team Liquid has revealed several notable partner integrations for its upcoming World of Warcraft Race to World First event.
Team Liquid will participate in the event, which will kick off on December 13th, under its newly-launched MMO vertical Liquid Guild. Moreover, for the duration of its Race to World First event, Team Liquid will host over 40 raiders and broadcasters at its Alienware Training Facility in Santa Monica, California.
The Global Esports Federation (GEF) has entered a strategic partnership with the European Olympic Committees (EOC) aiming to expand the development of esports across the continent.
The partnership forms part of the EOC’s initiatives to explore new ways of engaging with young people across Europe. Both parties will also jointly develop new opportunities to make the connection between sport and esports.
