The Esports World Cup Club Partner Program is one of the biggest opportunities for esports organisations around the world in the current industry landscape. With VC funding significantly drying up, and sponsor interest generally dropping over the last few years, many esports organisations have struggled to keep money coming in at the required rate to meet the high costs of the industry. Meaning, programs that offer the organisations themselves the chance to make money directly from tournaments, rather than splitting prize money with players, have become more important than ever.
The EWC Club Partner Program does exactly that, offering significant financial support to clubs that can help spread the word of the tournament, create content around it and, hopefully, perform well when everything kicks off in Riyadh this summer. The top eight clubs from the Esports World Cup 2024, along with 32 others chosen through an application process, have been selected for the 2025 Club Partner Program, and now their journey to the Esports World Cup really kicks off.
“In 2025, we wanted to build a partnership that, instead of providing competition-related funding, places a dedicated focus on engaging global fans and helping Clubs grow their communities,” said Hans Jagnow, Director of Team and Player Relations at the Esports World Cup Foundation. “It’s all about putting fans at the center, connecting them with the EWC storylines of their favorite Clubs and players, and enabling them to expand their brands through these opportunities. Last but not least, we have more Clubs while maintaining a strong funding level, setting the partnership up for overall growth with our investment.”
For the 40 teams that have made it into the program, they are now guaranteed six figure payouts, providing they meet the requirements of the program, and potentially up to $1 million should their campaigns around the EWC perform particularly well. This isn’t related to competitive performance at all, all partner teams still have to qualify like any other squad for all of the tournaments at EWC, but the better their campaigns around the event, the bigger the payout they could end up with.
“It’s encouraging to see the esports ecosystem evolving to offer more ways for teams to move towards sustainability,” said Sam Mathews, CEO and Founder of Fnatic. “Unlike traditional sports like football [soccer]
, we don’t have the same kind of major media rights deals, and most clubs still operate at a loss. That’s why initiatives like this that focus on long-term sustainability are key to keeping the industry healthy and growing in the right direction.”
Having this extra stream of income has already proven useful for teams that were part of the program last year, allowing them to invest in more areas and benefit both staff and fans. Newcomers to the program this year are already making plans on how this new income stream can help their organisation, and looking at how it could also provide them with competitive advantages for the 2026 Esports World Cup when it comes to signing new teams.
“Esports is a rapidly growing industry, but it is also highly competitive and resource-intensive,” said Claire Teng, General Manager at Wolves Esports, a newcomer to the program. “The financial support from the Program will enable us to make strategic investments in our players, infrastructure and long-term growth. These funds will help us cover essential operational costs, enhance training facilities, and potentially expand into new projects or regions. We believe this will strengthen the club and help us to further promote the Esports World Cup global influence in the esports ecosystem.
“Our second place finish at the inaugural EWC Club Championship was a big part of a very successful 2024 for our organization,” added Victor Goossens, Founder & Co-CEO, Team Liquid. “Our competitive achievements during the year allowed us to expand into new games like chess, and contributed to our goal of becoming a sustainable company in esports. The participation in the Club Program helps Team Liquid on our path to be a stable long-term and sustainable organization in esports. The way the event and its various initiatives are being structured are thoughtful and aligned with how to build sports ecosystems. It rewards not only competitive results, but also has a mix of important long-term elements such as team branding, fandom, marketing and engagement.”
A focus for the 2025 Club Parter Program was making it as international as possible, giving organisations from underrepresented regions a chance to join as well. For the EWCF this means a chance to engage a wider audience and bring more eyes to the tournament, an obvious win for them, but for organisations from those regions it offers a rare chance to make some serious cash, and a chance for them to establish themselves alongside the big international orgs.
“Being selected as an Esports World Cup Foundation Club Partner is a statement to the world, it is a reward for years of relentless hard work and a milestone for Indian esports,” said Animesh Agarwal, CEO and Co-Founder of Indian organisation S8UL. “It gives us the opportunity to represent India at the highest level, to create content that shapes the gaming landscape, and to contribute to the evolving global esports community. Most importantly, it’s a chance to do what we love, play, compete, and push the boundaries of esports.”
For the organisations that have made it into the program for 2025, this is a major opportunity. They can bring in some significant cash as well as work with other teams from other regions to boost their followings and hopefully reach new audiences. And that’s all before they even start thinking about their competitive performance at the event. But for those that didn’t make it in, and there are a lot, it’s not game over yet. Membership for the program is reviewed every year, with new teams given the opportunity to join, and that should help spread the wealth a little as the program continues to evolve.
“With only 40 slots for more than 200 applicants, there is an uncomfortable but basic truth: you make 40 clubs happy, but 160 will be disappointed that they didn’t make it through the highly competitive process and might disagree with the result,” said Jagnow. “We provided extensive feedback to each Club on how they can improve their application, and since we allow annual reapplications, the next opportunity will come in 2026. This gives a full season to make a strong impression at EWC25 and beyond, showcasing their competitiveness, creativity, and ability to engage fans.”
But for now, the teams that have made it in will be focused on preparing their campaigns for the Esports World Cup, making the most of the opportunity in front of them. The hope is that this year there will be a lot more content from the teams themselves around the event, which should hopefully give fans even more things to engage with and only increase their enjoyment of the event. The fact that it will also financially support the clubs involved, is just another positive for everyone involved.