FIFA, Madden tournaments to broadcast on ESPN

If you’ve ever wanted video game versions of sports to get the same treatment as regular sports, your wish is about to come true.

EA Competitive Gaming Division (CGD), responsible for organizing FIFA and Madden tournaments, has announced a new partnership with ESPN. It has also extended partnerships with NFL Network and Univision. The partnerships will allow for mainstream broadcasting of future EA tournaments.

Essentially, this means that in the future you will be able to watch FIFA and Madden on ESPN.

According to a news update on EA’s website, CGD has been looking for ways to build up the competitive experience of their events.

Todd Sitrin, SVP of EA CGD, said in the update, “We’ve long believed in the potential of competitive gaming to reach an even broader audience once games are more accessible to play and more accessible to watch.” Sitrin goes on to explain that ESPN is a channel which shares this vision.

This will not be the first time a major EA tournament has been broadcast on a well-known sports-centric TV channel. Last December, EA aired the Madden Classic on NFL Network, a tournament which brought together all the best Madden 17 players.

Now these types of tournaments will be coming to ESPN, as well as to other ESPN affiliated channels (ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, etc.).

Indeed, EA CGD and ESPN are wasting no time in getting their partnership started. This very weekend, ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN3 will be air the FIFA Ultimate Team Championship Series Paris Regional Final. Not only will the tournament be broadcast on television, but it will be available online through Watch ESPN and on Twitch. (For complete times and listings, see EA’s website.)

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Looking forward, three Madden NFL Majors will be receiving airtime — Madden Bowl, Madden Challenge and the Madden Championship.

For those who love soccer and football so much that they just can’t get enough either in live or video game form, it’s your time to rejoice.