Even though 2020 took its toll on the industry, esports have continuously grown over the past decade, and League of Legends team - Team SoloMid - just had a sponsorship deal that will only boost that narrative. TSM is now rivaling the biggest sports teams in the world.
Towards the end of last year, TSM was named by Forbes as the most valuable esports organization in the world, setting the team’s valuation at $410 million, eclipsing its main rivals Cloud9 and Team Liquid. For that reason, it won’t come as much of a surprise to many that esports’ biggest representative has clinched a new sponsor that will shell out $210m over the next 10 years to acquire the teams’ naming rights and see TSM become TSM FTX.
As to who is paying such a staggering amount to get those three letters placed next to the TSM brand, the company behind it is FTX, a futures exchange focused on cryptocurrencies, founded by American CEO Sam Bankman-Fried but based in Hong Kong. TSM had teased the deal on its official Twitter account in quite a humorous fashion, but official news and full details were disclosed exclusively by The New York Times, revealing numbers that eclipse similar commercial agreements for major sports teams in the NBA, NFL, MLB, and world soccer.
In the midst of an unprecedented rise in cryptocurrency prices, FTX had already established a similar partnership with the NBA’s Miami Heat, which saw the team’s home court leave its American Airlines moniker in favor of the new FTX Arena name. Despite ongoing environmental concerns regarding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, TSM FTX is not the first company within the gaming industry to warm up to the sector, with Ubisoft and GameStop doing the same.
FTX’s activity in the United States is limited due to several regulations that forbid it from offering futures trading services, however, in the rest of the world, the company has promoted a plethora of financial products like tokenized stocks or even the chance to bet on the 2020 US Presidential election. Considering esports betting is one of the biggest draws video game giants like Sony have found in the kind of business carried out by FTX, the partnership seems almost natural.
The extra money will surely come in handy for TSM FTX, as the team looks to assert its dominance in several titles such as League of Legends, Pubg, Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege, Apex Legends, and Valorant. Esports will continue to grow on par with the rest of the gaming industry.
