(Bloomberg) — Electronic Arts Inc. sealed an accord with LaLiga to sponsor Spain’s top football league, replacing Banco Santander SA, the country’s biggest bank.
Under the agreement, LaLiga competitions will carry the Californian firm’s EA SPORTS FC game brand, according to a statement from the two parties.
Financial terms and the exact duration of the deal, which takes effect from the 2023-2024 season, weren’t disclosed.
The partnership will allow the game publisher to link its well-known sports gaming franchise to one of Europe’s most prestigious football competitions featuring stars of the sport including Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema and FC Barcelona’s new signing Robert Lewandowski.
“LaLiga is incredibly important as we start and accelerate our football platform worldwide,” said David Jackson, VP of brand of EA SPORTS FC.
“We have ambitions to grow our platform and engage millions and millions of fans all over the world.”
The new agreement will build on a relationship already in place between the two parties that was extended for 10 years in 2020 with EA as LaLiga’s official video-game partner.
Game Franchise
For EA, the Spanish sponsorship deal comes after it failed in May to reach a new licensing deal with FIFA to keep branding its football video-game franchise with the name of the sport’s world governing body.
LaLiga and Santander announced last month their decision to end their sponsorship arrangement, which began in the 2016/2017 season.
LaLiga struck a 2 billion-euro ($2.1 billion) deal with CVC Capital Partners in December to invest in a newly-created subsidiary that gives it a share of broadcast revenue.
The same month, Spanish phone company Telefonica SA and London-based streaming company DAZN Group Ltd.
each won rights to broadcast about half of Spain’s top competition games for five years in an auction that valued the rights at 4.95 billion euros. In March, DAZN transferred broadcasting rights for the games to Telefonica in a deal valued at 1.4 billion euros.
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