The biggest esports partnerships of 2024

Similarly to 2023, this year in esports has had its highs and lows. However, no matter the scene, a dotted line has always been signed as a myriad of esports partnerships are born. 

Layoffs, closures and questions surrounding esports’ sustainability have plagued the industry. Yet, despite these conversations, companies have expanded. Organisations are finding new ways to make revenue and non-endemic brands are still teaming up with esports teams to bolster revenue opportunities.

2024 has seen high-profile partnerships and sponsorships, with some of the biggest brands in the world getting involved in esports. From supermarkets to drinks brands and even one of the biggest sporting bodies in the world, esports has seen investment from all sectors. 

In line with this, Esports Insider has compiled some of the biggest and most notable partnerships from the last year in one article.

A partnership can be big for many reasons; maybe because it brings a mainstream brand into esports or it has a specific purpose that people can get behind. For French esports organisation Team Vitality, this partnership has both.

The organisation renewed its partnerships with four companies at the beginning of 2024, one of which was supermarket chain ALDI. The partnership was centred around Team Vitality’s League of Legends women’s roster, Rising Bees, to help grow the team’s appeal and audience outside its home country.

In October, the two brands unveiled a further collaboration focusing on toxicity towards women in gaming and specifically how to combat it whilst promoting diversity in esports. The collaboration resulted in a video titled ‘Des Failles dans La Faille‘ (Rifts in the Rift in English) which featured Rising Bees players and other figures discussing their experiences with misogyny in gaming and esports.

The company first became a partner of the organisation in 2021 and focused its efforts on the Rising Bees since its inception in 2023, but this year has increased its collaboration with Team Vitality including the co-created video.

In a year when fewer major brands were unwilling to invest in esports, Pepsi’s involvement with MAD Lions KOi was refreshing.  

In August Spanish esports organisation MAD Lions KOI, owned by Overactive Media and soon to be renamed Movistar KOI, announced a partnership with beverage brand Pepsi. 

Towards the end of the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) campaign, Pepsi became the organisation’s official beverage sponsor and as such featured on MAD Lions KOI’s front jerseys for the prestigious competition. Luckily for Pepsi, MAD Lions’ achieved an incredible feat in qualifying for Worlds and as such the beverage brand was displayed at the event which later became the most-viewed esports event of all time.

Alongside the partnership with MAD Lions KOI, Pepsi also partnered with The Esports World Cup, a multi-title esports event organised by the Esports World Cup Foundation.

Global football governing body FIFA announced two major partnerships in June which reshaped the future of the FIFAe World Cup and many of its other events. 

The first announcement detailed that the FIFAe World Cup will make its return, with national teams now competing in the vehicle football game Rocket League due to a partnership between FIFA and Psyonix. Given that FIFA no longer has an official game to its name, with Electronic Arts now donning the EA FC moniker, this was the first major sign of FIFA’s esports priorities.  

The second announcement was a partnership with British game developer Sports Interactive to launch the FIFAe World Cup of Football Manager. Whilst Rocket League is an already established esport title, the expansion to the more niche Football Manager, displayed FIFAe’s willingness to expand into the unknown of football esports.

LCS is no stranger to large partnerships, but for its final season, the brand went out with a bang. This is the last major partnership for the LCS, with the competition being replaced in 2025 with the LTA.

The League Championship Series (LCS), Riot Games‘ franchised North American League of Legends competition, announced a partnership with American multinational conglomerate AT&T in February. 

The deal saw AT&T hosting a segment in the broadcast that was meant to be a ‘peak behind the curtain’ and focused on behind-the-scenes content when matches were taking place. This included clips of real-time audio from the matches. 

The company was also named the primary sponsor of the LCS Fan Fest and had its logo integrated into the broadcast and at the event, with it featuring on the headsets of players, referees and commentators.

Potentially the most controversial entry on the list, esports industry awards show Esports Awards announced a three-year partnership with Saudi Arabia-backed multi-title esports tournament Esports World Cup (EWC).

This resulted in the first of two Esports Awards ceremonies being held during EWC in August in Riyadh. The partnership garnered criticism due to Saudi Arabia’s stance on women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights and censorship. Moreover, several notable industry stakeholders withdrew from the Esports Awards panel following the partnership’s announcement. 

At the time of the announcement Esports Awards CEO assured that EWC will have no control over the award nominations or the adjudication process and that Esports Awards will remain an “independently owned and operated entity.”

Multi–title esports competitions are all the rage in recent memory, whether it’s the Esports World Cup held in Riyadh, FIFAe’s football-focused World Cup or esports being featured at the Asian Games.

In 2024 another brand entered the conversation as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) partnered with the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Saudi Arabia to launch the inaugural Olympic Esports Games 2025. 

This is the biggest attempt from the IOC to create a multi-title esports competition, complete with its own esports commission. As part of this deal, the 2025 games will be hosted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The specifics of the partnership are just as large, with the collaboration between the IOC and the Saudi NOC announced for the next 12 years.

The partnership is driven by Saudi Arabia’s social and economic transformation under Vision 2030.

Movember is an annual international event that aims to raise awareness and funding for men’s mental and physical health issues. It has a long-standing connection in esports with various organisations running campaigns and raising money for the charity involved. 

This year tournament organiser BLAST and German esports organisation Berlin International Gaming (BIG) were among a list of companies that launched notable campaigns. 

BIG launched its campaign alongside L’Oréal Men Expert and Movember called #GROWBIG. The collaboration was aimed at a younger male audience and focused on mental health as well as prostate cancer and testicular cancer awareness and prevention.

BLAST partnered with the men’s health charity Movember and made the charity the official mental health partner of BLAST Premier. This deal included activations focused on men’s mental health at the BLAST Premier World Final 2024.

Anime and esports have created an almost synonymous relationship of the year. So it’s no surprise to see that in June, Brazilian esports organisation FURIA announced a partnership with American streaming service Crunchyroll centred around the anime series My Hero Academia.

The two brands worked together to create a merchandise line inspired by FURIA and the My Hero Academia which launched later in the year. The collaboration was presented by Red Bull Ladeira Abaixo, the Brazilian version of the Red Bull Soapbox race, where FURIA fielded a car with My Hero Academia branding.

Apparel collections have been all the rage this year as FURIA also partnered with Champion later in the year, whilst other esports brands, such as 100 Thieves, G2 Esports and OpTic have done similar deals to create clothing lines and exclusive apparel packages.