 Hi everyone. So glad you can join us for another episode of Adweek's most powerful woman in sports. I'm Lisa Granitstein, and it's here where the world's greatest marketers, media pros, athletes, and coaches share their remarkable career journeys and how they achieve peak performance. Today, we'll be speaking with global head of League of Legends, Naz Alitalha. We'll talk to Naz about her journey from entertainment to eSports and the lessons learned along the way. Naz's career began in finance at Sony Pictures, though she soon after pivoted to Activision Blizzard, where she spent four years in marketing. Naz joined Riot Games in 2011, just five years after its launch. And last fall, Naz was promoted to global head of League of Legends, eSports after heading up eSports partnerships and business development. Lots to dig in here, so let's dive in. Naz, welcome to the show. Hello. Hi. Hello. Good to see you. Good to see you. Thanks for having me. Thank you for being here. So let's start from the beginning. Tell us a little bit about your back room. Where'd you grow up and how did you get into gaming and were you into sports as a kid? Share a little bit. Yeah, so I grew up in Southern California, born and raised and have lived here ever since. It's hard to beat the weather, so I've stayed put. But I grew up, yes, eSports were a big part of my life growing up. So were video games, interestingly enough. I never think I would have dreamt that the two of those would have merged in my adult life to form my career. But I got into sports at a very early age because my dad is so into sports. And the story that my mother always likes to tell is, I'm the older of two daughters. And my dad, at the time, I think once my sister came along, he was a little upset that he didn't have a boy. And he would tell my mom, I always wanted a son so that I could play sports with him. And her answer back to him was, well, why can't you do that with your daughters? And so I give credit to my dad because even in the 80s, he opened his mind at the time and he did. And so in a way, I became the son he never had. But all sorts of sports, I'd say growing up from tennis and basketball and volleyball and running and skiing were big parts of my life. What was your favorite video game growing up? Oh, Mario Brothers. I was an avid, avid Mario Brothers player growing up. I have very, very vivid memories of, I mean, it must have been the late 80s and I was so little, but my older cousins bought the NES, like the original Nintendo system. And I remember them bringing it home. And it was magic seeing this game kind of come to life on the screen. And I always had to wait my turn because I was the youngest one. So I had to wait patiently. But I learned a lot about how to play by just watching at the time. And so you went into finance, I believe, and you went in, you got a job at SOTY Entertainment, which is very cool. But that wasn't, that wasn't your future. What happened there? And how did you get into Activision Blizzard? Yeah, Activision at the time. Yeah, I studied business with a concentration in corporate finance when I was in college. And I chose that concentration to be honest, not because I was particularly passionate about it, but because I was good at it. And, you know, I thought that was the smart choice. I thought I was, you know, thinking ahead to job security and making sure I was going to, you know, get on a solid career path once I graduated. And I did, you know, that panned out for me. I got a job at SOTY Entertainment in the motion picture group doing corporate finance. But what I realized about a year and a half in was, you know, what I think I already knew, even in college, which was I'm good at this, but I don't like it. And, you know, I didn't want to continue down on that path because, you know, at least my calculus at the time was the further down this path I go, the more pigeonholed I'll be, and it will be harder for me to transition. I don't know if that would have been the case. Who knows now. But that was when I really started to look around and say, like, how do I, how do I parlay this, this knowledge and, you know, short amount of experience with some experience that I have in, in finance into a different career trajectory. And at the time someone told me like, oh, you should, you should check out this company Activision. And, and, and funny enough, you know, even though I grew up playing video games, I, I didn't know that that was a career path that was even available to me. I think I had, you know, very narrowly viewed video games as like you must be a video game designer, right, or an engineer to pursue a career there. And I was proven very wrong. And I'm very happy I was. What was your, did you remember what it was like your first day being going from entertainment to like, you know, video game place, like that's very cool. It was very cool. You know, it's, it's, I, I immediately fell in love with the industry because it, it sits right in this cross section of at the time, technology and entertainment, you know, and, and so that's really exciting. And where it's evolved to today is that that cross section has, has grown, right, where it's entertainment and technology and sports, you know, all coming together to, to produce entertainment essentially for these audiences. So it's, it's been great. Yeah, you've really watched gaming explode. And can you give us a sense of this, of the scope and scale of esports now as you see it, and then we'll, we'll drill down into League of Legends, but just, just generally how big is this space now? It's, it's massive. So esports and maybe I'll take a step back from just even esports, but video games is entertainment, you know, watching people stream video games, whether that's an esports competition or an individual, right, who, who may stream and he or she entertains their audiences. It has grown to be really a, the majority share of the entertainment hours that our audience and our demographic have, they devote that to watching and or playing games. So they spend more time watching or playing games than they do watching movies, watching television, listening to music, even going on social media. And so it's, it's now huge and taking up kind of a majority of, of, of, you know, I won't say mind share, but entertainment share, entertainment hours of, of the younger generations, you know, I think that streaming, there's like over a billion people are, are watching streaming of video games. So it's huge. And then, you know, if you kind of double click into that with League of Legends, you know, our game is League of Legends here at Riot Games and League as a game has grown to be one of the most played games in the world. But it's now a massive spectator sport where, you know, we have hundreds of millions of people around the world who are fans of the sport and who follow the sport. And so, and, and honestly, like, I don't even think we're even near our ceiling, you know, it's, I think the size of it still. Is it, is it bigger in Asia or is it pretty comparable here in the U.S.? You know, Asia is huge. It is really big. I always look at Asia, specifically South Korea and China. It's almost like they're three or four years ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to video games, the place video games hold in culture and, and, and eSports as well. And so, you know, in China, League of Legends eSports is the third most popular sport in the country. That's crazy. You know, when you look at North America here in the U.S., League is the third most popular sport in the 18 to 30 demographic. So, within that demographic, you know, we're right there behind the NFL and the NBA. And I think, you know, my hope is that in a couple years will be similar to China here, you know, where it's the third most popular sport period. Wow. Now, the demo obviously is mostly young guys. How, how, what kind of efforts are underway to try and bring in more women? Yeah, you know, our demographic for League, League of Legends eSports fans is about 70, 30. So 70% male, 30% female. We've seen that over the year. So one increase, the female concentration of that, it once upon a time was 90, 10. So, you know, I don't think our work is done. Yeah. I'm happy to see at least, you know, improvements over, over the years. You know, it's really important to us to, to lower the barriers to entry for women. We've done a lot of amazing work with our, our different game called Valorant, where we've essentially launched a program called Game Changers. And the purpose of the program is really to give training and to give opportunities to actually compete in very competitive events for women or for people of, you know, marginalized genders. And we're seeing such great results, you know, they're, the point of it is not so that we can go form a female only League. You know, we actually believe that the beauty of eSports is that the physical constraints of, of the traditional sports world are removed. And so, you know, we envision a day where you're going to see mixed gender teams play at the professional level. But in order to get there, you know, we need to give women the opportunity to, to compete and kind of hone their skills at that, at that, you know, the highest tier of, of competitive levels. So, so we're, we're at that stage right now. Okay. So you were recently promoted. Tell us a little bit about what the global head of League of Legends does, like tell me about a day in the life. Yes. I think the best comparison would be like a commissioner. We don't, I don't call myself a commissioner, but you know, responsible for the overall sport. So everything from competitive operations and rulings and policies to marketing and the commercialization and business side to of course PR to, you know, our relationships with the pro team organizations. Our ecosystem is vast. We have 12 regional leagues all over the world. Each of those leagues has on average, you know, 10 to 12 professional teams that play in it. So overall 12 leagues, five continents, about 120 pro teams and almost a thousand professional players competing. And so my job is to make sure that we're doing right by those players and right by our audience and, and giving our fans just the best sport and the sport that they deserve. And where do you see, I mean, obviously, eSports is on the cutting edge of technology. It's leading the way. Where do you see Web 3 metaverse fitting in? You know, I realize League of Legends is its own thing, but how do you, is there, is there a future with the metaverse? I'd say probably, maybe, you know, I mean, who knows really, right? Yeah, you know, it's, it's super interesting. I mean, we, we live in this very digital first world and in the sports world, you know, our sport is digital. There's, there's kind of two worlds is how we almost look at it. There's the physical where we have our pro players and the talent that they bring and we have these large arenas that we sell out and right. So the physical aspect of what you get in traditional sports is very present. But then you have what's happening in the world of the game and the characters that they're playing and the backstory of those characters. And, you know, we've done some interesting things with partners like Louis Vuitton, who have come in and designed, you know, looks for, for some of those in-game characters. And so, you know, I always compare it to, I liken it, I would say to if you, if you were able to take the NBA as a sports league and combine it with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that's, that's what we have essentially. We have this very rich in-game IP and then we have the talent and, and competitiveness, right, of, and star power of our pro players and we combine that to, to produce sports. And, and you're, you were talking about Louis Vuitton, what about just I gather brands are jumping on right now? I mean, what has that been like? And was it, was there a period where you actually had to convince them? It really convinced them. Yeah, yes. That's an area that's near and dear to my heart because I used to head up our, our partnerships team and, and started that team. And once upon a time in our early days as a sport, I was a, a team of one. And I was out there pitching partners and just trying to, to educate the market. And, you know, I, people would look at us like, I don't understand what this is. Is this, is this digital basketball? Is it, you know, we, it was a lot of explaining and, and, and putting the numbers in front of them. Like, look, our viewership is massive and, and the audience not only is it big, they're just so engaged. But it certainly took a lot of convincing, especially in the early days. And it's been, it's been, you know, honestly, really rewarding to see that dynamic shift over the last couple years where I think eSports has now grown so big that if you're a marketer and you're looking to be part of the zeitgeist, you have to consider eSports. And it's really not a matter of if it's a matter of how should you get involved and, you know, who do you get involved with and what's that entry point and, you know, how do we make that come to life in a way that's really resonant, you know, with this audience. And I would imagine obviously data and understanding tech is really important. Are there other critical skills that you need to be a marketer in eSports? You have to have a very keen understanding of this audience. And we do partnerships, you know, and we have amazing partners, partners, you know, Mastercard, Mercedes, Bose, State Farm, like these incredible, incredible brands who have long histories in marketing and sponsorship and, and, you know, working with sports properties. I give our partners a lot of credit because they come to us with such an open mind and they're open to really listening to what we're advising them to do because just because something works when you're marketing to the NFL crowd or an NBA crowd doesn't mean it'll necessarily translate to this audience. So our approach is very much providing value and I don't mean like free stuff, but I think our audience really embraces marketing, whether that's marketing from us or marketing from our partners, when they can understand how it's making their experience as a fan better. And so that's the North Star that Wara was chasing, which is like, how do we make it better to be a fan of the sport? And if we can check that box, we know we've done our job right as marketers and partnership managers. Right. And, you know, the outward facing and in terms of finding, promoting the game and being inclusionary is so important. How do you do that internally? How do you create the culture of inclusion at League of Legends? I think diversity of perspective is so, you know, the way we see it, we're a global sport and I already talked about our audience spans every corner of the world, every culture in the world. And so, you know, we really want to make sure that when we're thinking about the decisions that we're making, again, that we have that diversity presence so that we can be the best that we can be, you know, for our audience. So I think that's everything from hiring. It's everything from, you know, we have offices all around the world. So we lean really heavily on our local teams because they know those audiences the best. And, you know, there's nuance there. There's nuance between territories. There's not really a homogenous approach when you're thinking or, you know, providing a service of sport and entertainment product to a global audience. So we really do try to stay connected in a variety of ways. Do you think esports is becoming much more diversified than traditional sports? I think it will become more diversified, especially when you think about the competitors themselves. You know, again, in League of Legends today, everyone at the pro tier is male, but my hope and aspiration, again, is that because the physicality is not going to be a constraint, shouldn't be a constraint is that we'll see that shift over the years. But when you even look at really the operational side of the sport, you know, we're seeing women elevated to positions of CEOs and presidents of team organizations, of leagues, of, you know, huge, you know, very important functions across the sport. And it's hard for me to make that comparison to traditional sports, you know, women are making amazing inroads across the board. But it's been really, really encouraging to just see the overall diversity across esports, especially over the last couple of years. Yeah. And absolutely, we'll be seeing women take center stage, many different sports, including esports. We're just at a time, but before we head off, I'd love to have you share your takeaways. Oh, sure. These are three of my favorite takeaways that I always advise, you know, people on my team or people I mentor. The first one is that a career path is rarely straight. What I've learned in my own career path is that there are these twists and turns that are going to come at you. And it's really about embracing them. Because, you know, I think if you had asked me, you know, 15 plus years ago, when I was a financial analyst at one day, you know, if you had told that woman that one day she'd be running a global esport, I would have told you you were crazy. And so it's these leaps. And I think we as women can sometimes, and I know I'm generalizing, I think we can sometimes let our own self-doubt prevent us from taking those leaps and trying something new, because maybe we think we don't have the right skill set or, you know, there's someone better. And I think the answer is go jump. You can do it and you will learn and, you know, you will pick it up. The second one is know what you don't know. I think self-awareness is so essential. This is advice that was given to me so long ago. And I've always kept it in the back of my head, but knowing what you don't know and in turn knowing what you do know. So knowing when to exert your expertise, and then also knowing where your gaps are so that you can go fill those gaps and you fill them, right, whether that's by going and educating yourself or surrounding yourself with people with that expertise. But I think that's essential. And then the third is chase passion. You know, again, like we talked about, I learned that early in my career, which was, you know, don't chase the money, don't chase the recognition. The money will probably come, but it's that passion that gets you through those inevitable, you know, challenges that any career is going to throw at you the late nights, the stress, whatever that is, those mountains are going to be there for you to climb. And I think if you're not passionate about what you're doing, you may not feel like the climb is even worth it. So, yeah. Those are amazing and 100% agree. Fantastic. I'm going to be taking notes on those later. Anyway, listen, thank you so much for joining us. I hope we can have you back at one of our events. We do a lot of sports events. And this has been terrific, really pleasure having you. Thank you. It's so good to talk to you, Lisa. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Take care. So, and thank you all for joining us. We'll see you back here on March 23rd with Cleveland Cams Chief Commercial Officer Shelly Kayet. Have a great day.