Paris Saint-Germain expands into esports with 'League of Legends' Team Huma

League of Legends European Challenger Team Huma has found a buyer, and the squad is rebranding to Paris Saint-Germain. This follows Riot Games forcing Huma's owner to sell the team for failing to compensate players.

French football club Paris Saint-Germain recently partnered with media company Webedia and subsidiary Bang Bang Management with the goal of creating an esports team with PSG branding, Le Figaro reported. While PSG did not directly purchase Team Huma -- Webedia did -- the Huma players and organization will be able to use the PSG brand.

Team Huma's previous owner Behda Jaafarian was forced to sell the team by League developer Riot Games after it discovered the team failed to pay players on time. Jaafarian and the Huma franchise were banned from owning teams in any Riot-affiliated competitions.

Team Huma sold for roughly $70,000.

Before the shake up, Team Huma placed third/fourth in the European Challenger Series Summer Playoffs and placed first in the Spring Playoffs in 2016. The team will continue to compete as a Challenger team as Paris Saint-Germain.

Paris Saint-Germain is part of a larger trend of traditional sports merging with esports. Before the Sixers purchased Dignitas and Apex, Echo Fox was founded by former NBA player Rick Fox, NRG Esports was formed by the co-owners of the Sacramento Kings with investments from Shaquille O'Neal and multiple soccer organizations own FIFA esports players.

These investments in esports don't come as a surprise -- the esports industry was recently valued at almost $900 million, and organizations are interested in what they can get out of that.