David Mulhall, a seasoned sports sponsorship executive with Riot Games, has been promoted to global head of esports partnerships and business development.
Riot Games esports president John Needham announced that Mulhall will be charged with leading a global team dedicated to onboarding new world-class brands into Riot’s robust esports partnership portfolio, while also delivering unparalleled value to existing partners through Riot’s global and
regional events across League of Legends Esports (LoL Esports), the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT), and Teamfight Tactics Esports (TFT Esports).
“In four years as a rising leader at Riot Games, David has been forging longstanding partnerships with premier brands that have supported our efforts to deliver groundbreaking esports events to fans worldwide,” said Needham, in a statement. “We’re more focused than ever on creating opportunities for
partners that deliver great value and improve the player experience watching esports. David’s deep understanding and passion for our various esports communities is critical to successfully integrating partners into our broadcasts and events.”
League of Legends esports racks up huge hours of viewing time. The 2023 League of Legends (LoL) World Championship was the most watched esports tournament ever, with peak viewership for Worlds at 6.4 million people. More than 146 million hours were watched.
“David is an extremely smart and strategic executive, with a proven track record of ideating and executing precedent-setting sponsorship opportunities worldwide,” said Paul Danforth, CAA Board Member and president of CAA Sports, in a statement. “He works at the intersection of innovation and scale, creating meaningful partnerships that can be activated globally to enhance the player and fan experience.”
Mulhall first joined Riot Games in 2020 and focused on building out the global business partnership strategy for Valorant Esports in advance of the inaugural Valorant Champions Tour season in 2021.
Under his guidance, Riot Games has renewed, expanded and secured global partnership deals generating revenue of hundreds of millions with notable brands including Mastercard, Red Bull, AWS, and most recently HP and their gaming brands Omen and HyperX. Mulhall oversees Riot’s relationship with CAA Sports, which has served as Riot’s agency for global partnerships since 2015.
“Working at Riot for the past four years has been a dream job, and I’m humbled by the opportunity to take on a larger role in our global esports partnership efforts,” Mulhall told GamesBeat, in an email. “Building connections with brands that believe in the value of our esports and create world class experiences for our passionate community is always the primary objective of our team. I’m grateful for the trust John has put in me to lead our incredible global business development group and look forward to unlocking more partnership opportunities that support the future growth of Riot Games.”
Prior to Riot, Mulhall spent three years as the director of corporate partnerships for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and its NBA2K esports team, the Kings Guard. In this role, he successfully secured regional, national, and international partnerships for both teams, and developed digital-first marketing partnerships in the opening year of the Golden 1 Center Arena in Sacramento.
A native of Sydney, Australia and former professional rugby league player, Mulhall’s career has been rooted in the world of competition and fandom. He also held management roles in sponsorship and corporate partnerships in the National Rugby League competition as well as the Repco Supercars Championship in motorsports.