The developer of “League of Legends,” one of the world’s most popular videogames, wants to end a lucrative sponsorship deal with FTX, saying its association with the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange is damaging its brand and potentially hurting its upcoming competitive season due to the uncertainty of the funding, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Riot Games Inc. said in papers filed on Friday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., that it doesn’t have time to replace FTX as a sponsor for the 2023 League of Legends competitive season, but wants to end the sponsorship as soon as possible so it can find a new cryptocurrency exchange partner. The League of Legends esports league boasts the third most-watched professional sport in the world among males between 18 and 34 years old, behind only the National Football League and National Basketball Association, Riot said in the filing. The FTX sponsorship was the largest Riot had ever signed for an esport league and represented a critical funding source for compensating its teams, the company said. FTX paid Riot $4 million in 2021 and agreed to pay the videogame maker $12.5 million in 2022 and roughly $12.88 million in 2023, according to a partially redacted copy of the agreement filed in bankruptcy court.
