Ukrainian Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) organisation Monte Esports has announced betting platform Rocketbet as its new title partner, one of the highest tiers of sponsorship a team can offer.
The exact arrangement of this new deal hasn’t been publicly disclosed by either party. Monte did share a referral link to the Rocketbet platform, though, essentially encouraging his fans to sign up and join the platform. A title partner is the sponsor given the most prominent spot in a team’s branding. In practice, that usually means the company’s logo appears on player jerseys, in videos and social media posts, and across other official team material.
The deal arrives as Monte tries to recover from a difficult stretch. In August 2026, the organisation’s money problems became public when former player Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras accused it of failing to pay “tens of thousands of dollars” owed to him. He said the unpaid amounts included back wages, tournament prize money, bonuses, and revenue from stickers tied to the IEM Cologne Major.
Monte’s first response on social media was dismissive in tone and drew heavy criticism. However, after the backlash, the organisation published a second statement in which it apologised for some of the words they used earlier and gave a fuller picture of its situation. Monte said it had gone two years in a row without stable funding, which led to a severe financial crisis. To keep the team running, it cut operational staff and began delaying salaries by up to three weeks at a time.
That instability also cost Monte its original core roster. Bymas, Aurélien “afro“ Drapier, and Oscar “AZUWU“ Bell were among the players who left in July 2026 to join Luminosity Gaming on free transfers. Because no transfer fees were paid, Monte received none of the money a sale would normally bring in, which could have helped steady its finances.
Monte has since moved to rebuild. The organisation recently revealed that it is looking for strategic partners and investors who could bring in fresh funding and help steady its operations. On top of that, the club has brought in an entirely new five-player European CS2 roster that includes experienced players such as Viktor “sdy“ Orudzhev, Alexander “br0“ Bro and Mateusz “mantuu“ Wilczewski.
