EA to sign $588m licensing deal with Premier League as former FIFA franchise seeks to reinvent itself: report

EA Sports’ FIFA football video game series remains one of the most lucrative franchises in gaming. The company’s licensing agreements, which allowed games to use official club and player names, have allowed the FIFA series to become one of the best-selling sports video game franchises in the world. And while the franchise is set to lose the popular FIFA moniker for the first time after failing to strike a deal for the licensing of the name with world football’s governing body, it is believed to be in the process of strike a mammoth deal to retain the rights to the Premier League, England’s top football league. According to a report, EA Sports has agreed to pay £488 million ($588 million or approximately Rs 4,861 crore) for the licensing rights of the 20 Premier League clubs.

A report from Sky Sports on Friday suggests the 20 Premier League clubs have been told at a meeting of a new six-year deal with EA Sports worth around £488million. The deal, according to the report, is close to being finalized.

The report quotes a club executive as saying the new deal will generate over £80m (about Rs 796 crore) for the league every year. The deal would see EA Sports remain the Premier League’s key partner and retain exclusive licensing rights for the popular league and its clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, among others, which have a global fanbase. The new deal is worth more than double the existing deal between the Premier League and EA.

The Premier League remains by far the most popular and watched club competition in the world, its financial power attracting the best players, managers and business partners. Much of its financial power comes from lucrative overseas and domestic broadcast rights, worth an estimated £10billion.

Last year, EA announced it was parting ways with world football’s governing body, FIFA, after a partnership spanning nearly three decades. FIFA reportedly asks EA for $1 billion every four years to continue using its name. After the two parties failed to agree on a new licensing agreement, EA Sports also announced that its FIFA series would take the moniker EA Sports FC starting in 2023. FIFA 23, released the year last in September, will be the last football game EA Sports. to bear the iconic FIFA nickname.

Although the name may change, EA’s annual football video game series remains one of the highest-grossing gaming franchises. In 2021, the FIFA game series sold 325 million copies. FIFA 23 had a record launch in September, with over 10.3 million players logging in to play the game in its first week – the highest in franchise history. FIFA 23 was released on September 30 on all major platforms, including PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X. The next EA Sports football game is expected to launch later this year.