Most American sports fans will know how many top NBA teams are starting to field their own sides in the NBA2K competitive gaming league. But it seems as though many of the world’s biggest soccer teams are also starting to show an interest in the competitive gaming phenomenon.
The FIFA eWorld Cup has been going strong since 2004. Whilst the winner of this esports tournament gets to pick up $250,000 in prize money, the rampant popularity of gaming has meant that enterprising soccer clubs have started seeing how they could broaden their revenue streams by fielding their own esports teams.
Danish and German soccer clubs like FC Copenhagen and Schalke 04 were some of the first sides to realise the potential of esports, and many top-level teams have joined in the action. As a result, we have witnessed legendary Premier League clubs like Manchester City signing teenage video gaming stars to represent them in the FIFA Online tournaments, and it seems as though such moves are commonplace all over the European football scene. From Italian clubs like Juventus to Spanish teams such as Barcelona, there is plenty of hunger for esports amongst the biggest names in the sport.
Whilst iconic French teams like Paris Saint Germain may be happy to dominate the club football scene, they have taken the time to field esports teams for titles beyond football simulators like FIFA. As a result, you can now go to a betting site like www.liveesportsbetting.com and enjoy betting on Paris Saint Germain’s League of Legends team.
The fact that a soccer team like Paris Saint German would start entering teams for battle arena games like League of Legends might be a surprising move. But as money-hungry clubs aim to cater to a younger demographic to boost their brand name, such initiatives are likely to become more commonplace.
In order to cater to this growing relationship between soccer and gaming, several of the sport’s governing bodies have been making moves to regulate the activity and ensure a level playing field. This can be seen in the fact that the Premier League has even established the ePremier League which was launched in conjunction with the Electronics Arts video games company. This gaming tournament allows gamers to compete as one of the 20 Premier League clubs and win points to help them get a spot in the FIFA 19 Global Series Playoffs.
Such moves will help overcome some of the licensing issues that have plagued the rise of soccer simulator gaming tournaments. In particular, the rivalry between the FIFA games and Pro Evolution Soccer has meant that some clubs won’t allow their branding to feature in the gameplay of the rival games.
But as the soccer simulator tournaments start to grow in popularity, we can hope that these licensing issues should be ironed out as esports becomes just too big for even the largest soccer clubs to miss out on. Whilst esports were often looked down upon by traditional sporting organisations, the fact that the competitive gaming industry will hit the $1 billion mark this year will mean that we can expect to see many soccer clubs aiming to build closer bonds with esports organisers.
This can even be seen in the US soccer scene when it was recently revealed that the United States Soccer Federation would be entering the FIFA eNations Cup with their own team. This would include representatives from 22 of the 24 clubs in the Major League Soccer tournament and it’s hoped that the initiative will boost the popularity of the sport in the US.
With over 20 nations from the six global soccer federations entering teams, it has shown that the world’s soccer organisations are starting to realise the potential of competitive gaming. So whilst soccer is one of the world’s longest-running sports, it has shown that it is willing to move with the times.
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