ESPN+ has inked a multi-year partnership with Riot Games to stream League of Legends competitions beginning this summer.
The partnership with ESPN+ will span the League of Legends North America Championship Series. That division features Team Liquid (part of the aXiomatic Gaming investment group backed by Warriors owner Peter Gruber), Golden Guardians (Golden State’s own team), and Counter Logic Gaming (owned by Madison Square Garden).
Coverage will begin on June 16 with a match between last year’s League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split finalists: Team Liquid and 100 Thieves. The finals will be held at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., the weekend of Sept. 8, with the top three teams qualifying for the League of Legends World Championship in South Korea this fall.
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In a statement, ESPN said it will “bring the largest esports in the world to sports fans” with the Riot deal. The 2017 World Championship saw a record 80 million unique viewers tuning in for a single match, with fans consuming a total of more than 1.2 billion hours of content over the course of the event.
“Subscribers of ESPN+ will be able to watch League of Legends competitions alongside thousands of additional live sporting events, original content and shows, and an on-demand video library,” ESPN said.
Games will be streamed on Saturdays and Sundays through the new ESPN app and ESPN.com. The deal isn’t exclusive, meaning games will also be streamed on Twitch and elsewhere.
SportTechie Takeaway
ESPN+ is ESPN’s answer to the cord-cutting phenomenon. The Netflix-like streaming service has a wide-range of live sports content, as well as original films and docuseries, available to subscribers with limited advertising.
ESPN has been adding new sports and features to the service since its launch this spring, including announcing earlier this month that it would begin streaming UFC Fight Night. The addition of the most popular esports league in North America represents an effort to tap into the lucrative gaming market.