eSports: Football Rebooted | The Drum's New Documentary
- 7 years ago
EA Sports’ Fifa football franchise is becoming the arena where pro sports are joining forces with eSports, and major broadcasters, brands and clubs all want a piece of the action.
There has been a paradigm shift in football, where video games were once a threat to matchday attendances, clubs are now signing up proficient gamers with a furor reminiscent of a heated transfer deadline day.
Fifa was first launched in 1994. It was only in the last year, however, that clubs started to see value in supporting people who are good at the game.
Michael Valentine of eSports event organizer Gfinity says that backing from clubs like VFL Wolfsburg, Manchester City, West Ham United, Roma, PSV Eindhoven or Sporting Lisbon means the scene is set to get “bigger and bigger”. Soon there will be so much endorsement that legitimate Fifa eSports tournaments could run in tandem with World Cups and Champions League fixtures.
He says: “EA Sports has come out and said it is going to do bigger tournaments. It requires publisher and developer support of any game to become a highly competitive title in eSports. Fifa has a massive opportunity because everyone loves football and once we’ve got developer support there’s no reason we won’t see the prize pool doubling and trebling as the years go on.”
There has been a paradigm shift in football, where video games were once a threat to matchday attendances, clubs are now signing up proficient gamers with a furor reminiscent of a heated transfer deadline day.
Fifa was first launched in 1994. It was only in the last year, however, that clubs started to see value in supporting people who are good at the game.
Michael Valentine of eSports event organizer Gfinity says that backing from clubs like VFL Wolfsburg, Manchester City, West Ham United, Roma, PSV Eindhoven or Sporting Lisbon means the scene is set to get “bigger and bigger”. Soon there will be so much endorsement that legitimate Fifa eSports tournaments could run in tandem with World Cups and Champions League fixtures.
He says: “EA Sports has come out and said it is going to do bigger tournaments. It requires publisher and developer support of any game to become a highly competitive title in eSports. Fifa has a massive opportunity because everyone loves football and once we’ve got developer support there’s no reason we won’t see the prize pool doubling and trebling as the years go on.”