Riot reaches 7-year, $300 million League of Legends streaming deal with MLB, Disney

Riot Games has reached a groundbreaking $300-million streaming deal through 2023 with BAMTech, the streaming tech company owned by Major League Baseball and Disney, The Wall Street Journal reports.

BAMTech will get exclusive rights to “stream and monetize” Riot’s esport League of Legends, and will reportedly build a new app-based streaming service that will attempt to monetize the game through sponsorship and advertising. BAMTech will also reportedly handle Riot’s current streaming partnerships with Twich and YouTube.

Riot announced the deal Friday, saying BAMTech will help take League esports to the next level.

This is a game changer for our sport. As we’ve said in the past, true economic sustainability is a critical means to ensuring a sport that lasts, and this represents a major step towards that goal. As an innovator in digital sponsorship and media sales, BAMTech will help us unlock long-lasting and meaningful value for our digital sport as it matures. In BAMTech, we have found a partner equally committed to building professional League of Legends towards the lasting future we believe in for teams, players and fans. We’re honored by their faith and belief in our sport.

In addition to Major League Baseball’s At-Bat and MLB.TV software, BAMTech also runs streaming services for HBO, Disney, the NHL, the WWE and the PGA Tour, among others. This is the first partnership for BAMTech within esports.

This marks a big step for competitive League, which has had no problems bringing in viewers but hasn’t quite been able to lock down a consistent revenue stream. League has over 100 million active monthly players and the game itself is very profitable due to micro-transactions, but teams have had very little access to those profits. Riot announced Wednesday the LCS prize pools would be increased and that teams would receive more opportunities to make money off of in-game items.

No details have been announced with regards to revenue sharing from this landmark broadcast deal with teams. The Wall Street Journal reports BAMTech will receive the revenue created by the service at first to cover its investment, and from then on an undisclosed portion will be shared with Riot.