Mentioned in this article
- Riot Games’ Naz Aletaha is named one of Adweek’s 2019 Young Influentials.
- The head of global esports partnerships was instrumental in landing deals with Louis Vuitton and Mastercard.
- It took two years for Riot and Aletaha to close the Mastercard agreement.
Adweek, the multi-platform publication which covers the brand marketing ecosystem, has named Riot Games’ Naz Aletaha as one of their 2019 Young Influentials. The 36-year-old Aletaha, an eight year veteran at Riot and the head of global esports partnerships, helped land brand partnerships with State Farm, Louis Vuitton, and Mastercard — which signed a multi-year deal in 2018.
The only esports space entrant, Aletaha sits alongside such people as soccer star Megan Rapinoe, Emmy award-winning actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Google’s Justin De Graaf.
According to Adweek, the 2019 Young Influentials was created to identify those who are overachievers in the space.
“We endeavor to identify the people who insist on setting the bar even higher—for themselves and their respective industry,” Kristina Feliciano, author of the list wrote. “Our picks for this year’s list of Young Influentials define what it means to be an overachiever.”
Aletaha was instrumental in bringing on Mastercard as the first global sponsor for Riot Game’s League of Legends esports title which encompasses five world leagues, an all-star event, and a world championship.
“[The original deal in 2018] was two years in the making,“ Aletaha said in an interview with the Sports Business Journal last October. “It was the first global deal for League of Legends and it was a landmark deal not just for Riot but for the industry as a whole.”
While Mastercard was the first global deal for Riot, Aletaha had been building up a large portfolio of branding sponsors, signing the likes of Honda, Red Bull, Jersey Mike’s, and Paramount Pictures.
Aletaha appears to have a deep understanding of esports audiences across the globe, which has been the key ingredient to landing sponsors such as Louis Vuitton and others. Louis Vuitton designed and created the case for the championship trophy for the 2019 League of Legends World Championships.
Aletaha is a Newport Beach native that earned a B.S in business from the University of Southern California.
