TNL Take: I need to find a new phrase for I mentioned this in The Next Level on this date and it just happened.
MLB Advanced Media will pay a minimum of $300 million to Riot Games through 2023 for the streaming rights for League of Legends.The deal is worth $50M a year till 2023.
Also on Dec 4 I said this on Twitter.
So how are they going to monetize?
Ads and Sponsorships.
Riot's Director of eSports Whalen Rozelle said on Reddit that while the service would continue to be free - you can guarantee there will be some premium paid options later - it would currently be monetized this way for now.
Some might say that's a ridiculous amount of money for a game that may not be that popular years from now.
Yes, you can't compare linear TV rights deals to digital but for perspective - NBC paid $1.2 Billion for the Rio Olympics.
How were those ratings?