Esports betting company Rivalry has collaborated with ex-professional Brazilian esports player Gustavo ‘Baiano’ Gomes to launch a new League of Legends-focused advertising campaign.
The campaign in particular will focus on the League of Legends World Championship, a tournament that Rivalry claimed generated 40% of the company’s total sportsbook handle during the period it ran last year.
The story of the campaign sees Gomes search for ways, such as ‘dark magic’, to help his native team LOUD survive the tournament. Alongside a promotional video, the campaign will also include social media promotions by both Rivalry and Gomes.
This is not the first time Rivalry has teamed up with Gomers on esports activations. In fact, the content creator partnered with the esports bookmaker in early 2022.
In recent years, Rivalry has heavily focused on the Brazilian esports market with the company regularly announcing partnerships and activations within the region. This year alone Rivalry has teamed up with Brazilian Counter-Strike content group Tribo and esports organisation RED Canids.
Rivalry’s marketing campaign for the League of Legends World Championship is in line with previous unique activations the bookmaker has created during major esports events. In the Counter-strike scene, Rivalry notably used a chicken mascot earlier this year to acutely promote its brand.
Outside of esports, the company has also looked to expand its gambling operations. This includes recently launching a new original IP called Cash & Dash. Moreover, despite recording a net loss of CAD $6.3m (~£3.67m) in Q2 2023, Rivalry noted at the time that it expects to reach profitability in the first half of 2024.
The news of Rivalry’s continued investment into the esports betting space comes at a time when other competitors have slowed down their esports operations. This month, esports bookmaker unikrn announced that it was scaling back its B2C operations. Meanwhile, Luckbox has suspended all betting and player registrations.
