FC Barcelona enters esports-focused agreement with Tencent

24 August 2020

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Spanish football club FC Barcelona has established a strategic cooperation agreement with Chinese multinational conglomerate Tencent.

FC Barcelona competes in Psyonix’s Rocket League and Konami’s eFootball PES, two football titles.

FC Barcelona Esports Tencent
Credit: FC Barcelona

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According to a release, FC Barcelona will “engage in deep communication” with Tencent regarding its efforts in esports. This includes “esports competitions, esports education and industry exchange in the future with a view to exploring the many possibilities of collaboration between sports and esports.”

Earlier this year, it was reported that the football club was looking to enter Chinese League of Legends. An alliance with Tencent could be a good start to make that a reality, considering it co-owns TJ Sports – the company that operates the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) with Riot Games.

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Concrete details surrounding the agreement, other than its existence, have not been made public at this time.

Tencent’s stake in major players in esports is worth noting, it owns 100 percent of League of Legends developer Riot Games, 84.3 percent of Clash Royale developer Supercell, 40 percent of Fortnite developer Epic Games, 11.5 percent of PUBG developer Bluehole, five percent of Rainbow Six Siege developer Ubisoft, and five percent of Call of Duty and Overwatch developer Activision Blizzard.

Esports Insider says: Details for this agreement are foggy beyond the dialogue that has been opened so it’s hard to judge it so far. However, with reports of Barca’s intent to enter League of Legends and Tencent’s ownership of Riot Games – it’s not unimaginable that the football club’s plan could come into fruition.

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