By Paul Nicholson
November 13 – Japanese video game maker Konami is entering into eSports live event competition with an agreement with Spanish-based eFootball.Pro to create an international league.
More details about the global competition are will be released soon, according to a e.Football.Pro press release. The partners have linked with Chinese company desports to expand the competition in China.
eFootball.Pro was founded in 2016 by Barcelona defender Gerard Piqué who acts as the company’s chairman. As an eSports company its focus is on competitions promotion, related content creation and broadcast. The company already has 50 employees across its activities.
“The goal is to drive all that makes traditional football the king of sports, towards electronic football, towards eSports,” said Piqué. “We want to bind the best of both worlds to bring the public a new entertainment model that they love since the first day.”
The competition will be played suing Konami’s Pro-Evolution Soccer game and on a platform created by eFootball.Pro.
Hideki Hayakawa, CEO of Konami Digital Entertainment Co, said: “eFootball.Pro’s unique position in eSports, combined with its strong football leadership, will allow us to deliver a fresh way for customers to enjoy our products. We are thrilled to collaborate with eFootball.Pro.”
Konami has been expanding its presence in the eSports environment.
In September Konami signed a deal with UEFA Champions League to make its PES League World Tour 2018 the official UEFA Champions League eSports competition. The Pro2018 World Tour will hold a number of offline events starting from winter of 2017 and running until spring of 2018. “The finals will take place in 2018 where the players who have achieved the highest points in the ranking will be qualified to fight for the Finals tournament that will be held in summer of 2018,” said Konami.
PES and UEFA have had a relationship since 2009 with the latest three-year agreement being signed in 2015. PES is the only official video game licensed by UEFA for the Champions League.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734835880labto1734835880ofdlr1734835880owedi1734835880sni@n1734835880osloh1734835880cin.l1734835880uap1734835880