EA Sports is in talks with the Premier League! Will the football video game get a lucrative license?

EA Sports’ most famous video game is still known today as FIFA, a reference to the International Federation of Association Football. But last spring, the gaming industry giant announced that EA Sports would lose its license after 30 years. The game is to be renamed EA Sport FC. Now, however, a new partnership with the Premier League is in play.

The name FIFA has always stuck for video game players, as the traditional football game that is played with great interest all over the world. Fans of the popular game were all the more surprised when, in May 2022, EA Sports announced that the FIFA franchise was coming to an end after thirty years.

The reasons? Money, of course. “FIFA is demanding more than double what it currently receives from EA Sports, which would boost its revenue from the series to more than $1 billion for each four-year World Cup cycle,” the New York Times wrote last year.

Although it was disclosed that EA Sports, a division of Electronic Arts, was still in talks with the FIFA organization, the outlook didn’t exactly look rosy. It is now clear that the video game soccer pastime called FIFA is definitely over. At the moment, however, EA Sports is in talks with another company.

Will the deal with the Premier League work?

According to a Sky News source, a multi-year deal with the English Premier League is reportedly imminent. Specifically, they are talking about a six-year partnership. The value of the total investment is expected to be £488 million, or over £13 billion. However, according to Sky News, a possible contract extension has not been ruled out.

“A senior (Premier League) official said the one-year deal is equivalent to more than £80 million and involves EA remaining the league’s main partner while retaining its exclusive licence for related electronic games,” the Sky News article said.

The Premier League and EA have had commercial ties since 1998. The New York-based video game company, which has a market value of about $30 billion, has been one of the Premier League’s main partners since 2016. However, neither side has yet commented on the leaked information.

However, according to Sky News, all 20 Premier League clubs have already been informed of the deal. In return for EA Sports’ generous investment, the video game company is expected to receive attractive advertising space at Premier League matches, including advertising on referees’ jerseys.

Already last year EA Sports signed a deal with Spanish football league La Liga, the deal with the Premier League is expected to be similar. EA Sports’ goal is to get as many teams as possible into its game with an exclusive license. EA says that despite the loss of the FIFA brand, its games won’t change much. The main reason is said to be the more than 300 licensing agreements in place.

Source: Sky News