EA Sports close to signing “£500m deal” with Premier League
EA Sports is close to signing a commercial deal with the Premier League, which could be worth close to £500million.
Twenty Premier League clubs were briefed at a meeting on Friday (February 10) that a new six-year partnership with the gaming company is close to being finalised, reports Sky News.
One club executive reportedly said it “would deliver more than £80million annually and would consist of EA remaining as the league’s lead partner, as well as retaining its exclusive electronic game licence.”
The Premier League’s current deal with EA sees the publisher sponsor several elements of match day experience, including the EA Sports logo appearing on referee jerseys.
Premier League integration on FIFA’s Ultimate Team, also includes Premier League-back player awards appearing as special items in the mode.
EA will rebrand its football games as EA Sports FC later this year, after ending a near-30-year relationship with FIFA.
The company has insisted that despite losing the FIFA brand, its games will not change that much.
It still maintains over 300 licence partners and includes all the same game modes, football leagues, tournaments, clubs and athletes including the likes of Ultimate Team, Career Mode, Pro Clubs and Volta Football as well.
FIFA 23 meanwhile earned the FIFA series its biggest-ever launch last year.
EA confirmed that over 10.3million players were registered on game within the first week, marking the biggest launch period in FIFA franchise history.
In our 4-star review, we said: “A few gripes aside, FIFA has rarely felt better. Thanks to the best Ultimate Team yet and immersive current-gen haptics that make you feel like you’re on the pitch, FIFA 23 is a stylish, expansive final bow for EA’s FIFA series as we know it.”
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Damian Jones
NME
