English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. have announced a new deal with Dutch esports agency Bundled. The club’s esports efforts is said to cover both Europe and East Asia.
Wolverhampton Wanderers first dabbled in esports when it competed in the Celtic eSports League, which started in January 2017.
Wolves enter into eSports partnership with @teamBundled, one of Europe’s leading console gaming eSports agencies.
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— Wolves (@Wolves) August 3, 2018
Russell Jones, Head of Marketing for Wolverhampton Wanderers discussed the partnership: “The growth in eSports is incredible. 160 million people are now tuning in to eSports every week, so entering this market presents a huge opportunity for the club to engage with fans in new and exciting ways. We will initially concentrate our eSports efforts around FIFA, which has also seen phenomenal growth. Over 10 million players entered this year’s e-series FIFA World Cup, with many more millions tuning in online to watch the action.
“We wanted to partner with an experienced agency so that we could enter the market with confidence,” Jones continued. “Bundled’s creative approach to content production and their experience of working with top eSports players and teams, puts them in a great position to support our ambition in this area.”
This new partnership will see the football club compete in FIFA, one of the more popular console-based esports titles. The Wolves partnered with Bundle – an agency that specialises in console esports – for guidance in approaching the industry in the correct fashion and for handling its FIFA players.
Melvyn Wolthers, Managing Director of Bundled added: “We are thrilled and honoured to be working alongside Wolves to develop their eSports programme across Europe and the Far East. We have been working with European clubs for many years and are very excited to support Wolves, whose aspirations off the pitch are just as progressive as on it.”
Esports Insider says: It’s cool to see the Wolves commit to esports after dabbling in it at the beginning of 2017. It’s not uncommon for a football club to enter esports via FIFA, but it still feels like a safe and uninspired choice to compete in the virtual version of the sport it’s already involved in. Hopefully, in time, Bundled can help to inform the club that there are plenty of other esports out there that can be fruitful.