The Premier League Kicks Off, But Most Fans Prefer Esports
This weekend marked the start of the England Premier League 2018–19 season. Football (or soccer) is Britain’s most popular team sport, and the Premier League is regarded by many to be the greatest league in the world. A recent report by The Football Association found that it is also England’s most popular participation sport — over 11 million regularly play at various levels.
However, a recent survey by UK internet provider Plusnet of 1,000 football and gaming fans (of which 46% were male and 54% female) found that 72% prefer playing football video games to the real thing. A third of these said it was because they were better at playing video games than real football. “Sports video games allow us to fantasise about being our favorite players which means we also have the skills of our favourite players and athletes,” said Andrew Selepak, Professor of Telecommunications at the University of Florida.
It is not only playing football on video games where a preference was found. 63% of respondents said they preferred video games to watching football live on TV, and 61% to watching it in a stadium.
In the Plusnet survey, 56% answered that they considered esports to be real sport and 59% want to see esports included in the Olympics. The recent Esports Forum between the IOC and prominent members of the esports community (including EIP team members) discussed such opportunities and led to the establishment of an Esports Liaison Group.
The IOC is generally accepting of esports (and recognises their popularity and the revenue they generate), but averse to violent games. Could this suggest that it will be sports simulations like FIFA, or Pro Evolution Soccer which is set to feature in the upcoming Asian Games, that will be among the first games to be included?
Premier League clubs Manchester City and West Ham have embraced esports and signed professional esports players to represent them at major esports tournaments. This is a smart business move and a popular one among fans. It seems that virtual football and real football can work together to their mutual benefit, with clubs recognising the importance that their esports presence will have on their future business.
The biggest ever FIFA eWorld Cup final was held in London’s O2 Arena at the beginning of this month. Over the course of the season, 20 million gamers competed for the prize of £250,000, making it the hardest FIFA tournament there has ever been to qualify for.
The FIFA video game is still a long way behind esports titles such as Dota and League of Legends, but the FIFA eWorld Cup marked an important milestone in the development of esports in the UK and of sports-based esports. With esports growth, we can only expect tournaments and prize pools to get bigger and bigger in the future.
EIPlatform is developing a global marketing platform built on blockchain to enable direct interaction between brands and members of the esports community.
The EIP team is currently in the final stages of development for the EIPlatform MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and expect it to be launched very soon. Please visit eiplatform.io for more information.
EIP on Social Media:
