Call of Duty League Owners in Talks for Higher Revenue Split
On February 15, 2024, OpTic Gaming’s Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez, and Seth “Scump” Abner filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard. This lawsuit revealed a lot of details about the contract between the Call of Duty League and the team owners, detailing how the COD League holds exclusive rights to the most lucrative sponsorships, and retains 50% of all revenue. However, the team owners are now in talks to change this, and receive more revenue than previously agreed.
First reported by Bloomberg, it is understood that Activision Blizzard are negotiating with the Call of Duty League team owners that would see them receive a greater share of the revenue that the League generates.
Call of Duty League
Many fans are seeing this as a step in the right direction for the Call of Duty League. Following the lawsuit filed by H3CZ and Scump, fans are now more in the know than ever before and believe that the outcome of this lawsuit will change esports forever, not just the CDL. One of the main talking points was the revenue split between Activision Blizzard and the Call of Duty League Franchise owners. In the current deal, the COD League was able to keep the best sponsorships for themselves, making exclusive deals with drinks companies and console platforms to retain a higher cut.
This new proposed deal would see the Call of Duty League team owners given access to these more lucrative sponsorships, and therefore be able to generate more revenue for themselves, thus resulting in a more competitive Call of Duty League.
Activision Blizzard has already restructured one of its competitive esports leagues, the Overwatch League, by outsourcing operations to ESL FACEIT Group. Many fans believe that the Call of Duty League could see the same, however this deal could be a lifeline to the continuation of the Call of Duty League under Activision Blizzard.
