Chinese esports organization Suning Esports (SN) has signed a sponsorship deal with Chinese food delivery service Eleme for its League of Legends team currently competing in the League of Legends World Championship (Worlds 2020).
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Eleme’s logo will be featured on the right shoulder of SN’s team jerseys.
During the group stage of Worlds 2020, SN made the top team in Group A and qualified in the knockout stage against another League of Legends team JingDong Gaming (JDG). Both teams will compete on Thursday, and only one of them will enter the semi-finals, which means the Eleme logo might only be in the event for one more broadcast day.
Both teams were owned by two Chinese e-commerce giants, Jing Dong and Suning, prompting some Chinese outlets to describe the matches as the ”E-Commerce Battle.”
Eleme is the second-largest food delivery service in China, following Meituan. The company was purchased in 2018 for $9.5B by Alibaba Group. According to a report from Daxue Consulting, Eleme owns 43.9% of the Chinese food delivery market, while Meituan owns 53%. In April, Eleme also partnered with Chinese esports organization Royal Never Give-Up (RNG) with five team League of Legends players and KFC products featured on Eleme’s mobile app.