The bank has signed a multi-year partnership agreement with both the League of Legends European Championship (LEC), Liga Latinoamérica (LLA).

League of Legends is one of the most successful esports worldwide, with the 2021 World Championship drawing almost 74 million concurrent live viewers.

This new sponsorship brings Santander into the global ecosystem of esports, helping the bank promote innovation, diversity and digitalization.

Madrid, Spain, 14 June 2022.
Banco Santander today announced a multi-year agreement to become a main sponsor of the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) and the Liga Latinoamérica (LLA). In an event hosted in Madrid, some of the most recognized streamers, artists and League of Legends players helped unveil Santander’s esports sponsorship.

League of Legends is one of the most successful esports worldwide, with some of the most developed professional competitions and established community of followers. In 2021 the League of Legends World Championship drew a peak viewership of close to 74 million concurrent live viewers, with an average minute audience of just over 30 million, according to the organizer, making it one of the most watched esports events worldwide. With the claim ‘Level up your dreams’, Banco Santander wants to build a new community and connect with younger generations to help them prosper.

The partnership with the League of Legends European Championship and the Liga Latinoamérica, is a 100% digital media agreement that will complement the bank’s other global sponsorships in F1 and football. This agreement will see the bank also sponsor the League of Legend’s Brazilian Championship (CBLOL). The bank has also previous local experiences in this field, being Openbank the sponsor of the national Spanish competition (Superliga). 

As a partner for these League of Legends esport leagues in Europe (LEC) and in Latin America (LLA and CBLOL), Santander will display a variety of assets to promote the brand and raise awareness in the League of Legends communities during the esports events, including: logo placements, dedicated content segments, commercial slots during broadcast breaks, banners, drops and VIP tickets for the finals, among others. 

Juan Manuel Cendoya, global head of Communications, Corporate Marketing and Research at Banco Santander, said: “We are excited to announce this new collaboration with a very innovative partner, with whom we are united by our attributes of innovation, diversity and digitalization. We believe that entering the world of esports will bring Santander new opportunities to engage with new generations of digital natives and help them prosper.”

Maximilian Schmidt, head of League of Legends esports in EMEA, said: “It is a pleasure for us to collaborate with a global banking institution committed to innovation, digital transformation and providing the best possible services for younger generations.”

Global presentation

On 14 June, a global launch event is being held in Madrid, Spain. It is presented by Medic, an iconic caster of League of Legends with more than 250,000 followers, and it is broadcasted globally online on Twitch and other platforms by the Spanish streamer Cristinini, with more than three million followers. The launch includes a freestyle show with several well-known artists for younger audiences, such as the singer Nicki Nicole, the rapper Chuty and the freestyle champion Sara Socas. Some of the most recognised players from different countries also participate in this event, such as Alan Q, Inspired and Jukes. 

About the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) 

The League of Legends European Championship (LEC) launched in January 2019 and became the most viewed esport league in Europe. Comprising ten teams that compete on a weekly basis in two 12 week long seasons, the LEC culminates each season in a live Finals in arenas across Europe, including Rotterdam and Athens. The LEC has signed mainstream sponsors including KitKat, KIA, LG UltraGear, Logitech, Red Bull, Warner Music, and now Santander. As of Spring 2021 the LEC’s Average Minute Audience, which is fans watching at the same time, is consistently over 470,000 across seven languages.

About the Liga Latinoamérica (LLA)

Since 2019, the Liga Latinoamérica (LLA) is the largest professional League of Legends competition in Latin America. It comprises eight teams competing in two seasons every year: Spring and Summer. The winner of the Spring split qualifies to the Play-Ins stage for the Mid-Season Invitational (second largest League of Legends competition) and the Summer champion qualifies for the Play-Ins stage of the League of Legends World Championship (largest and most important League of Legends competition). Since 2020, the competition takes place in Mexico City with the finals played in different cities across the region, like Santiago and Buenos Aires. In 2022, the competition announced a new format that includes a Double Elimination and a Winners and Losers Bracket.

Banco Santander (SAN SM, STD US, BNC LN) is a leading commercial bank, founded in 1857 and headquartered in Spain. It has a meaningful presence in 10 core markets in the Europe, North America and South America regions, and is one of the largest banks in the world by market capitalization. Santander aims to be the best open financial services platform providing services to individuals, SMEs, corporates, financial institutions and governments. The bank’s purpose is to help people and businesses prosper in a simple, personal and fair way. Santander is building a more responsible bank and has made a number of commitments to support this objective, including raising over €120 billion in green financing between 2019 and 2025, as well as financially empowering more than 10 million people over the same period. At the end of the first quarter of 2022, Banco Santander had €1.2 trillion in total funds, 155 million customers, of which 26 million are loyal and 49 million are digital, 9,900 branches and 198,000 employees.