(Yicai Global) Aug. 3 -- China’s YouTube-like video platform operator Bilibili has reached a strategic partnership with Riot Games, the developer of popular online game League of Legends, giving it exclusive broadcasting rights to the game’s global esports tournaments in China to the middle of 2023.

Bilibili will broadcast the LoL World Championship as well as the Mid-Season Invitational and the All-Star, for the next three years, the Shanghai-based company said in a statement today. It will also exclusively produce live-stream and video-on-demand content for LoL Esports fans in the country.

Bilibili did not disclose the cost of the deal. It won exclusive three-year rights to the LoL World Championship in China at an auction for CNY800 million (USD114.7 million), beating out competitors including game live-streaming leaders Douyu and Huya, the Beijing News reported in December.

Riot Games, a US developer now wholly owned by China’s Tencent Holdings, announced on Aug. 1 that this year’s LoL World Championship (S10) will be held from Sept. 25 to Oct. 31 in Shanghai. The 2021 event (S11) will also take place in China, it added.

“Throughout the past decade, we have witnessed the development of the esports industry from a niche market to a mainstream one that is now one of the most popular sports among young people in China,” said Carly Lee, Bilibili’s vice chairwoman and chief operating officer.

“The number of views of esports videos on Bilibili reached 44 billion in 2019,” Lee added.

Shenzhen-based Tencent is also Bilibili’s largest shareholder after Chairman Chen Rui. The internet giant owns 13.4 percent of the company after buy-ins last year, according to a February document. Chen has a 15.1 percent stake.

Editor: Peter Thomas