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The E-League could be the marketing solution for the A-League

Are Astralis the greatest team of all time? (Photo by Gennadiy Gulyaev/Kommersant via Getty Images)
Roar Pro
25th April, 2018
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Let me start off by making this abundantly clear, this is not a debate about why esport is a real sport.

I know that by writing this, I am going to inevitably get comments saying this, but let’s save that argument for some other time because regardless of your opinion on esport it is a competition that can draw people in the same way an A-League game can.

For those that are unaware, the E-League is a FIFA 18 competition that is organised by the FFA, each A-League club has two representatives, one that plays on Microsoft’s Xbox One and one that plays on Sony’s PlayStation 4 using the Ultimate Team function on FIFA 18.

Each club plays each other once in the premiership rounds with a finals series conducted on each respective console. The winners of these finals series will face off to determine the overall champion. The E-League is also connected to FIFA’s global FUT Championship series

Recently, I read in FourFourTwo that E-League matches being broadcast on Twitch have been smashing the A-League’s TV ratings. In some cases, there has been an increase in 16 per cent in viewership. While this can be argued that rating increase is due to more access to being able to see the games through Twitch, it is not surprising when one considers just how popular FIFA and Football video games are in general.

The FFA has been struggling to market the A-League to football fans, while the E-League is not the single determining factor that recruits them into A-League fans, it does have potential. It was estimated that as many as 1.6million people played FIFA 18 Ultimate team on the first weekend of its release.

It is also estimated in the main demographics of viewers of e-sport are between the ages of 18-24 and 25-34. Coincidentally the main demographic of those that watch football (either overseas or locally) is between the ages of 25-34.

This does not mean that all football fans are automatically going to be interested in FIFA, but it is interesting to note how we are a long way from the notion that esport is just for kids.

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The A-League has a critical advantage over other codes in Australia in the fact that it is a playable league in arguably one of the world’s most popular video games. This allows it to advertise and promote itself to its core demographic.

When compared to how other marketing campaigns of the A-League have been average at best, marketing the A-League through the E-League may prove to be successful.

There is a greater number of viewers who are interested in football and they are all watching content that is related to the A-League. The FFA should be looking to capitalise on this and recruit those people into avid followers of the A-League.

The E-League provides football fans with an alternative pathway to get involved in football. Just as how people develop connections with their favourite player in the A-League, could the same not also be said for their most watched FIFA streamer?

I know this is possible because I have seen it happen. I know people who had great enthusiasm for football, but as they grew older they realised that they lacked the physical coordination to play.

They were subjected to torment by their peers at clubs because they were simply not good enough. This was not because of a lack of trying or effort, however. Eventually, they stopped playing club football because they knew they were never going to get a chance but that did not stop their involvement in the game.

They turned to FIFA to keep their passion alive, eventually they bought an A-League club membership. When I asked them why, they said it was because they played with that club on FIFA.

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I have heard stories of people taking Blyth Spartans of the sixth tier of English football to the Premier League in Football Manager and then going to their games. If the role of a football club is to establish a local connection with its community and supporters, then the A-League clubs should see the E-League as an opportunity to establish that connection through a non-traditional method.

A gamer uses a computer mouse illuminated with red lights while using a laptop computer at the Dreamhack digital festival in Moscow, Russia, on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015. Dreamhack is the world's largest digital festival and meeting place for gamers, fans and e-sport enthusiasts.

(Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg)

While the E-League in its current state may have a small impact on attendances, more could be done. One idea (and as controversial as it may be for some FIFA fans) would be to have the competition take place outside of the Ultimate Team set up.

This is my biggest problem with the competition as it essentially makes it “pay to win”. A decent player on the Ultimate team transfer market will set you back at least 30,000 coins and considering the average player only earns about 400 per match, it is hardly a fair system.

What is even more infuriating is that we end up seeing players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi representing Perth Glory. As awesome as that is, it does not really make this an A-League tournament on FIFA, doing little to establish the connection between club and viewer. If we have the clubs using only A-League players, then the FFA is effectively marketing the A-League as these are the same players representing the clubs in real life.

The E-League alone is not going to solve all the issues with the A-League crowds, but I would believe that it has potential to remedy some of them. This may not be the old-fashioned way in how people came to support their club and why they go to games, but it is still one of them.

At the end of the day, the E-League is a way to gather more fans into the A-League, given the FFA is currently failing to do that through traditional advertising, this could be the golden opportunity that they did not know existed.

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