English soccer’s top-tier Premier League is close to finalizing a lucrative partnership extension with video game developer Electronic Arts (EA), it has been reported.
The renewed agreement will be worth close to £500 million ($600.1 million) and all 20 top-flight clubs have been informed, according to Sky News.
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The clubs were reportedly briefed at a meeting on Friday (February 10) that a six-year extension is being concluded.
A club executive told Sky that the deal would, therefore, deliver more than £80 million annually, and would consist of EA remaining as the league's lead partner as well as retaining its exclusive electronic game license.
The lucrative extension is said to be worth more than double the existing deal between the two parties.
EA has a long-standing relationship with the Premier League, dating back to 1998. It became the lead partner of the competition in 2016.
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By GlobalDataThe firm is also a sponsor of UK pay-TV heavyweight Sky Sports’ coverage of the Premier League.
The video game giant has a strong soccer presence which has been enhanced in recent months through several major deals.
Last August, the company was named as the new title sponsor of Spain’s LaLiga from next season and also renewed its partnership with North America’s MLS.
In October, meanwhile, EA partnered with European soccer’s governing body UEFA and global sports streaming service DAZN around the UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) club competition.
The company’s EA Sports arm has around 300 individual licensed partners, with the likes of Italy’s Juventus, Scotland’s Rangers, and the Croatian national team adding to its portfolio last year.
However, EA has announced it will end its licensing deal with soccer’s world governing body FIFA after 30 years.
The agreement, which has been in place since 1993, will come to an end this year.
EA will stop producing the FIFA-branded (and named) title, which is one of the most profitable franchises in video game history having generated a reported $20 billion in sales over the last two decades.
The current FIFA 23 title will be the last under their long-standing partnership.
While the publisher will continue to create soccer-themed titles, from this year on (with the deal set to end after the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup), they will simply come under the title of EA Sports FC.
Conrad Wiacek, head of sport analysis at GlobalData, commented: "The new deal with EA reinforces the Premier League's commercial dominance just as leading European clubs look to try and take on the commercial might of the English top-flight.
“The new European Super League (ESL) proposal is an attempt to dilute the commercial power of the Premier League, but without the English clubs, it is unlikely to gain much traction.
“While UEFA's new look Champions League format will certainly address some of the issues outlined by A22 Sports Management (the company in charge of promoting the breakaway ESL project), the commercial dominance of the Premier League and member clubs is unlikely to be surpassed in the immediate future."
Image: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
