The role of sponsors and sponsorships in esports: benefits and management
Sponsorships account for more than 60% of the total revenue of the esports market – a figure that says everything about the depth of brands that have entered competitive gaming. The industry pulled in $950.3 million in global revenue in 2019, and the trend has been accelerating ever since. Now we’re talking about a multi-billion dollar ecosystem where brands from insurance to luxury fashion are vying for a seat at the table. Understanding the role of sponsors in esports means understanding the engine that keeps the entire industry running.
From gaming peripherals to luxury fashion: the evolution of esports sponsorship
The story begins earlier than most people think. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Nintendo and Sega were already sponsoring competitive events like the Space Invaders Championship – primitive by today’s standards, but the blueprint was there. These were regular sponsors: companies whose products lived in the gaming world. Logitech made its debut in 1997 with the Cyberathlete Professional League. Intel partnered with ESL in 2001, providing hardware for the tournament. SK Telecom made history in 2004 by sponsoring SK Telecom T1 and StarCraft Proleague, bringing a premium telecom brand into the fold.
Then things got really interesting. Red Bull stepped in in 2006 – not just by branding the jersey but organizing events and sponsoring individual players. Doritos followed in 2010, with Pinnacle joining in 2014 and GEICO in 2015. In 2016, this space saw increased interest from brands like St. George Bank, Domino’s Pizza, Paris Saint-Germain, and Twitch. Momentum continued in 2017 with Mercedes-Benz and Adidas. In 2018, Mastercard launched its exclusive League of Legends partnership, reaching fans in more than 10 countries with events and branded content. By 2021, Coinbase had joined the ecosystem, alongside new digital platforms such as Bahigo Switzerland, showing the continued growth of the industry.
What caused this acceleration? In part audience size – The LEC Summer Season alone produced 143 hours of total airtime and 15 simulcasts per weekend, totaling over 30 million hours watched. It’s partly demographics: the esports audience skews young, digitally native, and resistant to traditional advertising. Reaching out to them needs to be within the content they are consuming, not distracting.
What sponsors really want – and what makes a partnership work
In fact, many brands entering esports underestimate the importance of engagement. It’s not about picking a popular tournament and putting your mark on it. A study examining 1,353 Korean sports fans found that agreeableness fully mediated the relationship between esports consumption and both brand loyalty and brand awareness. The structural model explained 57% of the variance in brand loyalty, 60% in brand image, and 38% in brand awareness. These are not trivial numbers – they confirm that the fit between the product and the esports context it fits into determines almost everything.
Traditional sponsors – manufacturers of computer hardware, energy drinks, gaming equipment – have an inherent advantage here. Their products belong to the ecosystem. Endless sponsors must work hard, build stories around shared values: collaboration, technological innovation, competitive drive. Coca-Cola and Louis Vuitton have done this convincingly. Some have stumbled by treating esports as just another media buy.
Live presence and live streaming activate brand equity differently. Live events build emotional depth and brand image through physical installations and spaces to engage fans. Streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube drive awareness on a large scale through on-screen branding and organic content integration. Sponsors who understand this difference allocate budgets accordingly instead of choosing one channel.
For brands that aren’t perfect, here are the areas with the most underutilized potential:
- Travel and hospitality
- Health care and medicine
- Government and the public sector
- Energy and resources
- Premium spirits and liquor
Protecting investments: contracts, rights, and management of long-term partnerships
A funding agreement without a strong legal framework is a liability waiting to explode. Poorly drafted contracts have cost players their intellectual property rights and left sponsors exposed to huge financial losses. Some of the most important clauses: termination provisions if a player leaves the team or loses an ongoing streak, clear social media obligations, and protections regarding the ownership of branded content.
South Korea’s sports infrastructure provides a useful benchmark. The country is ranked fourth among the top 10 sports markets in the world in 2021, behind China, the United States and Japan. The level of corporate maturity there – Korean Air signing an official uniform deal with South Korea’s national sports team, Mercedes-Benz Korea providing electric cars to players including Faker Sang-hyuk Lee – shows how structured, legally-backed sponsorship looks best.
Effective long-term management requires clear KPIs agreed upon before implementation, not retroactively. Sponsors should build reporting structures into contracts, not leave measurement as an afterthought. Working directly with esports stakeholders – teams, tournament organizers, content creators – instead of using standard product launch playbooks produces the best results. The brands that treat esports as a separate discipline, with its own culture and social mindset, are the ones that create long-lasting equity. Those who treat us as a media outlet will always do poorly.
