LOS ANGELES – April 15, 2024 – David Mulhall, a seasoned sports sponsorship executive with Riot Games, has been promoted to Global Head of Esports Partnerships and Business Development, Riot Esports President John Needham announced today.
In this elevated role, Mulhall will be charged with leading a robust 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 John Needham, President of Esports for Riot Games. “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.”
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.
“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. “He works at the intersection of innovation and scale, creating meaningful partnerships that can be activated globally to enhance the player and fan experience.”
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.
About Riot Games
Riot Games was founded in 2006 to develop, publish, and support the most player-focused games in the world. In 2009, Riot released its debut title, League of Legends, which has gone on to be one of the most-played PC games in the world. In the years that followed, Riot released VALORANT, Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra, and League of Legends: Wild Rift. Riot’s titles have led to the creation of some of the most-watched and widely recognized esports in the world, culminating in events like the League of Legends World Championship and VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT), which are watched by millions of fans each year. Riot has also expanded its IP through multimedia projects across music, comic books, board games, and Arcane, its Emmy-winning animated series.