The esports organization Immortals has just signed a three-year partnership deal with the cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Under the deal, Bitstamp will be the gaming organization’s founding partner and official cryptocurrency exchange.
Bitstamp did not respond to Decrypt’s request for details about the funding amount.
This isn’t the Immortals’ first foray into the world of cryptocurrency. It already has an existing partnership with DeFi artificial intelligence company fetch.ai; Bitstamp will be the team’s second crypto partner.
Nor is this Bitstamp’s first esports partnership. Just three weeks ago, the exchange announced it was paying nearly $6.1 million in a three-year deal to become the exclusive sponsor of British organization Guild Esports.
The US-based Immortals runs esports teams for the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game "League of Legends" as well as for "Valorant," a first-person shooter. Both games are developed and published by Riot Games, which itself secured a massive crypto sponsorship with exchange FTX last year.
Bitstamp USA’s CEO Bobby Zagotta said in a statement that he believes the new partnership with Immortals will help create "a more authentic experience between crypto and gaming."
"Serving the digital natives has always been a big part of the Bitstamp ethos," Zagotta said. "This includes gamers and streamers, who were among the first to explore the integration of digital assets within their industry and understand the value of cryptocurrency.”
The aim of the Immortals partnership is largely to help educate gamers about crypto while also offering crypto giveaways to esports fans. Every time the Immortals’ "League of Legends" team gets the first kill (also known as “first blood”) in any League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) game, Bitstamp will be giving fans the chance to win crypto.
As a part of the deal, Immortals is also establishing a special new team of content creators for "Valorant" called Team Bitstamp. While not esports pros, these creators will act as brand ambassadors for both Immortals and Bitstamp, airing livestreams and distributing crypto-centric freebies.
From esports orgs testing the waters with NFTs to acquiring major crypto sponsors, it appears that for now, the bond between esports and crypto is as strong as ever. Virtually every top esports org has either released NFTs or signed a major crypto deal since 2021, with Cloud9 partnering with Blockchain.com, FaZe Clan partnering with MoonPay, Team Liquid getting sponsored by Coinbase, and TSM signing a massive deal with FTX.