When Electronic Arts took the bold step of breaking away from its decades-long association with FIFA, the governing body of world football, the company entered a brave new world for its football game series, which will now be known as EA Sports FC. Well, kind of a brave new world.
In fact, EA has built a web of relationships in the football world over the past 30 years, including many licensing deals with individual leagues and teams, and no doubt now feels comfortable doing those deals even without that notoriously corrupt The name of FIFA is attached.
So it is not surprising to read a report from Sky Sports that EA is about to piece together most of the post-FIFA puzzle by signing a licensing deal with the English Premier League.
According to Sky, the deal is valued at nearly $600 million and will bring the Premier League around $95 million a year. That sounds like a lot (and it’s apparently more than double the previous deal between the parties), but remember that the Ultimate Team mode of EA’s soccer games alone generated a whopping $1.6 billion in sales in a single year brings in US dollars. EA retains the exclusive video game rights to the league and remains a principal partner. There was never any doubt that EA could make this deal and it’s easy to assume that all the other deals needed to ensure EA Sports FC is as fully resourced as its FIFA predecessors will be behind it.
The Premier League is known as a marketing and commercial powerhouse, home to many of the world’s most famous clubs including Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. Such is its strength that it recently repelled an attempt to set up a breakaway European Super League, convincing England’s top clubs to stay instead.
After 30 years of creating the world’s most successful football video game series, EA finds itself in a similar position of power. At the time of the split, FIFA (which owns the rights to the World Cup) promised to continue running FIFA video games independently. But without EA’s expertise and partners like the Premier League, it’s hard to see how it can compete.
