Riot Games has promoted Valérie Horyna to the position of Global Head of Esports Compliance. The promotion will see the sports and esports governance expert elevate from her previous regional remit to lead Riot’s overarching global competitive integrity and compliance strategies.

Operating from Berlin, Germany, Horyna will oversee regulatory structures, disciplinary proceedings, and governance enforcement across the EMEA, APAC, and Americas competitive circuits.

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According to Horyna on her LinkedIn profile, in the new executive role she is tasked with unifying global integrity standards across Riot’s primary competitive titles: League of Legends, VALORANT, and Teamfight Tactics. Her mandate includes driving the evolution of Riot’s anti-corruption frameworks and leading stakeholder engagement on emerging integrity risks, such as betting sponsorships, cross-industry commercial partnerships, and long-term regulatory compliance. The global function focuses on establishing trusted operational environments for teams, players, and publishers across distinct regional ecosystems.

Prior to her global appointment, Horyna spent nearly four years as Riot’s EMEA Esports Compliance Manager. During her tenure in the region, she built and scaled a compliance network across 23 independent tournament organisers, expanding integrity education and reporting frameworks. Notably, she designed and deployed Riot’s first independent esports dispute resolution mechanism in EMEA, which achieved a 70 percent ecosystem adoption rate in its inaugural year. During this period, she also represented Riot Games before regulators, industry stakeholders, and law enforcement agencies including Europol, IBIA, and Red Bull.

Horyna’s extensive professional background is heavily rooted in traditional sports governance. Before transitioning to gaming in 2022, she founded a sports governance consultancy called SportsLex, and served as Senior Legal Counsel for the International Hockey Federation (FIH), where she operationalised its dedicated Integrity Unit and Women in Sport Committee.

Most notably, she spent eight years at football governing body FIFA in Zurich, culminating in her role as Deputy Head of Ethics & Governance. During her tenure at FIFA, she managed disciplinary proceedings under intense global scrutiny during the federation’s high-profile institutional corruption investigations, whilst frequently representing the governing body in proceedings before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

This industry pattern of drawing governance talent from traditional athletic organisations is further illustrated by recent executive hires elsewhere in the space. The Esports Foundation recently appointed Audrey Cech as its new Director of Competitive Integrity & Governance. Much like Horyna, Cech transitions to her new oversight framework after spending over a decade navigating both digital and traditional athletics governance. Her background features senior legal, compliance, anti-doping, disciplinary, and arbitration tenures across UEFA, FIFA, and even Riot Games itself.

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