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eague of Legends Circuit Oceania (LCO) have announced DoorDash as the naming rights partner of the competition, with the competition to be named the DoorDash League of Legends Circuit Oceania for the remainder of 2021.

Within the deal, DoorDash will feature across LCO broadcasts with featured replay segments and across social media channels to the audience of over two million.

LCO head of commercial, Graeme Du Toit, spoke to Ministry of Sport about what the partnership means for the wider Australian esports market.

“DoorDash are pretty active in the space in the US,” Du Toit told Ministry of Sport.

“The US is a couple of years ahead of us when it comes to esports partnerships, but DoorDash has a strong focus on trying to get involved with gaming initiatives so we reached out domestically and it all started from there,” he said.

When asked if the deal is the largest esports league-level partnership in Australia, Du Toit said: “There’s a chance someone paid a few million dollars for a partnership in the past and no one knows, but at least from a league perspective, I haven’t seen a naming rights partnership on a league like this.”

“Even with the OPL (Oceanic Pro League, the top professional League of Legends competition in Oceania until the end of 2020), they had a bunch of partners, but none were on the scale of a naming rights partnership like this DoorDash deal.

“Definitely one of, if not the largest esports partnership in Australia,” he said.

On Australia’s hopes of catching up to the US in the esports space, Du Toit said it is achievable on a smaller scale.

“From a pure audience perspective, it’s impossible because they have a much larger population, but I would hope this deal will slingshot us in terms of delivering similar kinds of output on a smaller scale,” Du Toit told Ministry of Sport.

“That does help.

“It’s mostly a challenge of resourcing in Australia, so I think this deal will help us catch up on a smaller scale.

“Australia’s a little slow in the esports sponsorship space, there’s definitely been a bit of articles i9n the past saying how esports is a tricky space to buy into because the metrics don’t line up with traditional agency buying metrics, so it’s a harder space to pick up and you need some creativity to take off.

“This deal will make more people aware that brands are investing in Australian esports and that they should be exploring those avenues,” he said.

DoorDash senior manager of consumer marketing for Australia, Michael McCash, said in a statement the partnership is a ‘no-brainer’.

“We’re really excited about sponsoring the League of Legends Circuit Oceania,” McCash said.

“Gaming and on-demand delivery go perfectly together.

“DoorDash prides itself on it’s high level convenience offering for food, groceries and alcohol, perfect for players and spectators that are often engrossed in long gaming sessions,” he said.