August 9 – The Premier League has announced video game maker EA Sports as a new Lead Partner in a three-year deal that significantly expands its current partnership with league.
EA SPORTS currently holds the Premier League’s exclusive Electronic Game Licence, which enables EA SPORTS to deliver Premier League clubs and players within EA SPORTS FIFA games around the world and on multiple platforms.
The new agreement will see the video gamer sit alongside other leading brand names as part of the Premier League’s new sponsorship strategy which has seen it move away from title sponsorship in favour of exclusive category sponsorships. The league announced an Official Timekeeper partnership with Tag Heuer in May.
The EA Sports deal includes on-screen branding on all the league’s global broadcasts, sponsorship of Player of the Month and Season awards, pre-match in-stadium brand integration and continued sponsorship of Fantasy Premier League.
EA SPORTS Global Marketing Vice President Jamie McKinlay said: “This year is an especially exciting one for Premier League fans as we debut The Journey, a brand new mode within FIFA 17 in which fans will live their story on and off the pitch as Premier League prospect Alex Hunter.”
EA SPORTS has been a partner of the premier League since 1995 and has created a new retrospective video to highlight the evolution of the franchise all the way back to FIFA 95 and up to the upcoming release of FIFA 17 which launches on 27 September.
The new deal will bring EA’s games a little closer to the Premier League. “This partnership will allow EA SPORTS to collaborate even more with the League and the clubs, and to be part of the interest and excitement around the competition, both through their fantastic games and the association with the Premier League that this agreement brings,” said Premier League Managing Director Richard Masters.
No figure was announced for the enhanced deal.
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