Yandex.Checkout and Riot Games have unveiled a new feature for League of Legends players as the game’s virtual currency can now be purchased via mobile phone balance – a convenient payment method for those who might not have a bank card at hand but have some spare money on their telephone balance.
League of Legends is a multiplayer online video game developed and published by Riot Games, an American studio established in 2006. The game is widely popular in Russia, USA and many other countries: 100 million unique visitors from around the world log into the game every month.
League of Legends mobile payment service is available through all Russian top mobile operators – to Beeline, MTS, Tele2 and MegaFon clients. Yandex.Checkout also provides many other payment options for League of Legends players: via bank card, Yandex.Money e-wallet, and online banking via Sberbank Online.
According to Yandex.Checkout statistics, mobile payments are quickly gaining popularity among Russians. This year the number of payments from people’s telephone balance grew by 65%. Mobile payments are most often used for not very expensive purchases, particularly online gaming content. Users spend an average of 295 rubles (~$ 5) at a time.
According to the recent TNS research, Russian gamers prefer to pay for online games in different ways: 11% are using e-wallets, 10% do it via credit cards, 9% use online banking, 5% use text message invoicing. Yandex.Money study suggests that online games take up 42% of the funds from users’ payments through the service, averaging at 460 rubles (~$ 7) at a time. The same study revealed that women make up a far greater portion of users paying for virtual entertainment via the service than men: 34% and 14%, respectively.
About Yandex.Chekout
Yandex.Checkout is the leading service for accepting online payments in Russia, according to a 2016 survey by MARC. With this payment solution, merchants from all over the world can offer Russian consumers the online payment methods most popular in Russia: bank cards, online banking, e-wallets, mobile phones, and cash via mobile retailers and payment kiosks (there are over 250 thousand cash-acceptance points all over the country). Currently, more than 76,000 online stores across the globe use Yandex.Checkout. Yandex.Checkout was launched by Yandex.Money in 2013. Yandex.Money is the joint venture of search engine Yandex (NASDAQ: YNDX), and Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia. Yandex.Money also offers consumers easy, safe, and reliable methods of paying online on its own site and mobile app. The service hosts about 28 million user accounts with about 15,000 new accounts opened daily.
About Riot Games
Riot Games was established in 2006 by a couple of entrepreneurial gamers who believe player-focused game development can result in awesome games. In 2009, Riot Games released its debut title, League of Legends, to critical and player acclaim. Over 100 million play every month. Riot Games aspires to be the most player-focused game company in the world.
