PSG, winners of eight French Ligue 1 titles announced news of their remotely run FIFA 20 esports tournament last Friday, with gamers from all corners of the globe looking to compete - there'd been 1,400 applicants within 12 hours of opening. Weekly competition winners will then have the opportunity to face PSG footballers Juan Bernat, Julian Draxler, and Layvin Kurzawa to win prizes, with PSG esports all-star DaXe competing too.
The tournament is being run in unison with Accor Live Limitless, a branch of the AccorHotels group who struck a multi-million Euro deal to become PSG's shirt sponsor in February last year. We'll see fans of PSG take on beIN viewers and the latter will broadcast the action in France and in the USA, as well as in a number of territories across Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
Esports as an industry has seen a huge spike in both popularity and viewers over the past month or so, with nearly all sporting events across the world being postponed because of the unfolding coronavirus pandemic. Florent Houzot, the on-air director for beIN Sports France told sportbusiness.com: "We anticipate strong viewing figures from gaming competitions like this one as fans around the world are asked to stay indoors, but want to be entertained by the teams and players they love."