Digital platforms – Inside World Football

EA Sports FC brand launched globally as video gamer ends its FIFA friendly

Paul Nicholson — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 00:30:05 +0000

April 14 – EA Sports has started the brand building for its EA SPORTS FC title that will launch at the end of the year, ending EA’s use of the FIFA brand after a 20-year association.

Essentially it is the same game with most of the same teams and player licenses, and pretty much all of the same video gamers buying and playing, it just won’t be called FIFA and FIFA won’t collect over $100 million in licensing fees.

Old meets new in shiny renovated stadium. Botev Plovdiv embrace next frontier

Paul Nicholson — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 10:10:31 +0000

March 20 – Bulgaria’s oldest football club Botev Plovdiv has signed a partnership agreement with one of the newest digital platforms targeting football, Fanzee.

Fanzee is a fan engagement tool designed to help sports organisations engage with their fans through innovative promotions and exclusive rewards. The club will integrate the Fanzee platform to create a dedicated digital space for Botev fans with entertaining and up-to-date content throughout the season.

“Challenge yourself and test your knowledge through various quizzes,

MLS dances to TikTok tune as US threatens to ban the Chinese-owned app

Paul Nicholson — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 00:19:22 +0000

March 20 – While the US government has increased its pressure campaign against TikTok, threatening a US ban of the app if the company doesn’t split with its Chinese ownership, Major League Soccer has no issue with the social media platform being used to collect vast volumes of data.

The US and other governments, including the UK, have cited national security interests. The MLS have put personal financial interests in first position.

Under the new multi-year partnership between the MLS and TikTok,

Monaco agree auction partnership with collectibles specialist Catawiki

Paul Nicholson — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 06:25:57 +0000

February 23 – AS Monaco and has agreed a collaboration with Catawiki, an online auction platform for buying and selling special items and collectibles.

Fans of France’s Ligue1 club will have the opportunity to participate regularly in online auctions of unique items from itsmatches, most of which will be worn and signed by the players.

To mark the beginning of their collaboration, they are today launching an auction of the jerseys of the eleven Monaco players who started in the match against Paris Saint-Germain which Monaco won 3-1 on February 11.

Crystal Palace is first Premier League club to debut channel on WeAre8 social media app

Paul Nicholson — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 07:10:32 +0000

February 8 – Crystal Palace are the first Premier League club to sign up to socially conscious social media app WeAre8 with an official presence.

WeAre8 says it is “built to inspire and empower its citizens for 8 minutes a day with exclusive content from the world’s best creators and zero tolerance for hate.” The app sells itself on wanting to create a better world through social media, rather than a hate filled one.

OneFootball and DAZN test new ground with live football PPV distribution deal

Paul Nicholson — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 04:25:40 +0000

February 3 – Sports streaming leaders DAZN and OneFootball have struck a distribution deal that will widen the reach of DAZN content in Germany and Austria via OneFootball’s network.

Kicking off this weekend, selected live DAZN matches from Italy’s Serie A and France’s Ligue1 will be offered as single pay-per-view events in the two countries.

The first matches in the new agreement this weekend include Paris Saint-Germain vs FC Toulouse and Olympique Marseille vs OGC Nice in Ligue 1,

Digital transformation is now about taking ownership of fan engagement in house, says Ferre

Paul Nicholson — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 06:00:11 +0000

January 31 – The digital focus within football marketing started as being all about web sites and building social media numbers on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. But there has been a strategic shift and while the social media platforms are still important it is the new fan engagement platforms that are making the marketing difference.

“It is all related to fan engagement which is at the core of the matter. How do you communicate to a vast majority of supporters of clubs,

Fulham secures cyber protection firm Acronis for 3-year partnership

Paul Nicholson — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 13:20:51 +0000

January 31 – Cyber protection specialists Acronis has announced a three-year partnership with Premier League Fulham.

EveryCloud.co.uk will support Acronis as Fulham’s ‘Strategic #Cyberfit’ delivery partner. This will include providing leading cyber protection solutions and cloud backup service to the club.

Under the Strategic #Cyberfit banner, delivery partner Acronis will provide Fulham FC with a full suite of cyber protection solutions via EveryCloud.co.uk.

Ronan McCurtin, VP of Sales Europe,

Premier League inks fantasy football deal with Sorare

Paul Nicholson — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 15:28:25 +0000

January 30 – The Premier League has unveiled a four-year deal with fantasy football game Sorare that will see the league license official player cards.

Users of the game will be able to buy and use official Premier League-licensed NFTs under the exclusive agreement that will see the release digital cards of players from all 20 Premier League clubs as part of its free-to-play online fantasy football game.

While playing the game is free,

DAZN boosts global streaming roll-out with Prime Video distribution deal

Paul Nicholson — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 00:41:25 +0000

January 20 – Sports-streaming giant DAZN has agreed a deal with Prime Video to distribute its service in Amazon’s Prime Video Channels.

DAZN has built its platform around football with rights to the Bundesliga, English Premier League, J.League, LaLiga, Serie A, and the UEFA Champion’s League, as well as a strong package of women’s football.

While Amazon Prime has picked off marquee sports rights in key markets to drive subscriptions to its multi-genre streaming service,