How Football and Esports Created An Unlikely Overlap

Football is the globally dominant sport. No other sport even comes close. Meanwhile esports, including virtual football, are a booming business, growing larger every year. Although you might not think it, the beautiful game has quite a lot of overlap with its virtual sporting counterparts. This is what you need to know about it.

An estimated 3.5 billion people call themselves football fans, and some 5 billion people watched the last FIFA World Cup. The market is worth hundreds of billions globally, with 2024 seeing €38 billion in revenue for European football overall. And that’s not including the huge sports betting market, of which football is a key component.

Operators, Players Bet Big on Gaming

The football betting market has been a fixture of the game for nearly a century - but esports betting is a fast growing market in its own right. Bettors can get competitive esports odds as well as bonuses and promotions on all sorts of games. That includes football game EA Sports FC (previously FIFA) and other popular esports titles like:

• Valorant
• Call of Duty
• League of Legends
• Rocket League

Esports has its own rapidly growing audience, which is no small fry either. The global esports audience is projected to reach over 640 million people by 2025, significantly up from 435.7 million in 2020. This is how the two overlap, and why it could have big implications for both sectors.

It is now its own multibillion business, with teams, tournaments and players often driving significant traffic to bookmakers.

The overlap between demographics is interesting. Years ago, it was difficult to be a football fan without visiting the terraces fairly often. Today, football aficionados can watch every match of their favourite team each season - without ever leaving the house.

This means there are now legions of avid football fans who have never even kicked a ball in real life, and are much more at home on a virtual field. Which also lends itself to betting, as fans leverage more and more data to convince themselves they have a sports betting edge.

How Football is Increasingly Embracing Esports

One of the ways in which football is working with esports is by directly founding esports teams. Many major global football clubs have started esports divisions, including:

• Paris St Germaine
• Manchester City
• FC Barcelona
• FC Schalke 04
• FC Copenhagen

These clubs initially stuck to FIFA (now EA Sports FC) but many have initially expanded into other major esports titles like League of Legends, CS:GO and Rocket League.

That last one is an interesting title, as it is a football inspired game played with virtual cars and giant ball. That eventually became big enough to have legitimate, multiple championship winning football clubs invest in teams for it.

For large football clubs, entering the esports arena is a powerful strategy to diversify their brand. It allows them to tap into new revenue streams from sponsorships and merchandising, and, crucially, engage with a younger, digitally savvy and global audience that might not be traditional match day attendees.

Players Play Games Too, And Stream Doing It

Footballers themselves are often gamers too. Popular players like Cole Palmer, Wayne Rooney and the recently-deceased Diogo Jota, have all been known to stream themselves playing virtual football in between playing the real thing.

In the 2023 off season Everton even organised and streamed squad members playing a EA FC tournament at the club's (now former) stadium Goodison Park.

EA FC even gives players a special 99 gold edition card of themselves if they own the game and contact the developer.

Some retired stars like Sergio Agüero (KRÜ Esports) and David Beckham (Guild Esports) have even founded or invested heavily in esports teams across various games.

Beyond individual clubs, entire football leagues are embracing the digital realm. The Premier League and the German Bundesliga have both launched official esports equivalents in the ePremier League and the Virtual Bundesliga.

These tournaments put professional esports players, often representing real world clubs, against each other. This creates a new layer of competition, allowing fans to follow their club's progress across two distinct but similar seasons.

Mutual Benefits Boost Both Markets

There are even weird and wacky deals with football players in non-football related esports. Such as being able to play as England striker Harry Kane (armed with an M16 rifle) in popular battle royale shooter Fortnite.

The reason this works is because football and esports share a competitive community spirit, where fans buy in wholesale to a team.

Whether that's buying matchday tickets at the Etihad, a club logo emote to play in chat, a rocket league stream or a branded cosmetic, Manchester City doesn’t mind - it all goes in the club’s coffers.

As esports booms and football continues to be the globally dominant sport, expect to see closer collaborations between the two carry on long into the future.