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CDL crowd
Image via Activision
Category:
CoD

CDL owners reportedly want higher sponsor revenue share, echoing H3CZ and Scump’s lawsuit 

Call of Duty League owners want a bigger cut.
Image of Ryan Lemay
Ryan Lemay
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Published: Feb 27, 2024 03:06 pm

Following a lawsuit suing Activision over its management of competitive CoD, Call of Duty League owners have reportedly engaged in closed-door meetings with Activision to improve owner revenue splits.

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On Feb. 15, OpTic Gaming president Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez and Call of Duty legend Seth “Scump” Abner filed a lawsuit against Activision, seeking $680 million in damages. Among its many compaints, the lawsuit claims Activision created a monopoly over pro CoD “by refusing to grant licenses to organizers and operators of other commercial competitions.”

Toronto Ultra player Scrap hyping up his teammates at the 2024 CDL Major One tournament in Boston.
The Call of Duty League saga takes another twist. Photo via Activision

Scump and H3CZ argued this forced teams to join the league because maintaining sponsorships relies upon competing in tournaments, which was now only possible under Activision’s terms. Following the same line of thinking, CDL owners also seem to want a larger split of the revenue generated from sponsorship deals.

CDL owners seek bigger cuts of merchandise sales and less sponsorship restrictions

Bloomberg reporter Cecilia D’Anastasio confirmed the league and the owners are currently in talks to increase the contentious revenue share agreement. The CDL owners refused to reveal their names as the discussions aren’t public, but they told D’Anastasio that complaints stem from Activision keeping sponsorships for certain drinks and console platforms for itself. “The owners want a bigger cut of their teams’ virtual merchandise sales and fewer restrictions on sponsorships,” D’Anastasio noted.

As to what those sales refer to, CoD news source GGBreakingPoint reported this includes micro-transaction revenue from the $11.99 CDL team packs that are sold in the MW3 cosmetic store.

CDL insider Jacob Hale added more context by revealing the OpTic Gaming Lawsuit and revenue discussions are most likely unrelated. “From what I know these negotiations predate the lawsuit and are likely nothing to do with it,” Hale said. “I’ve heard figures for the split from the YouTube deal, but some owners wanted to negotiate higher split.”

Hale couldn’t confirm if a deal has been reached or how far the negotiations went, but we will provide an update when more is revealed about the developing story.

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Image of Ryan Lemay
Ryan Lemay
Ryan graduated from Ithaca College in 2021 with a sports media degree and a journalism minor. He gained experience as a writer with the Morning Times newspaper and then Dexerto as a games writer. He mainly writes about first-person shooters, including Call of Duty and Battlefield, but he is also a big FIFA fan. You can contact him at ryanlemay@dotesports.com.