Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Events and Attractions

NFL's First Team Experiment With "Madden" E-Sports Competition Wraps Up This Weekend

The NFL's first foray into e-sports with its clubs concludes this weekend with the finals of its "Madden 17" Club Series. NFL Network will carry the competition live on Saturday at 9:00pm ET, while Twitch and EA Sports' YouTube and Facebook Live channels will stream it. NFL Chief Strategy Officer & Senior VP/Consumer Products Chris Halpin described the first year of this partnership with EA as more of a test. Only eight NFL teams participated this go around -- the Vikings, Patriots, Bills, Seahawks, Jaguars, Steelers, 49ers and Chiefs. Halpin hopes to have all 32 NFL teams represented eventually. Halpin: "We’ve been looking at e-sports from a distance for a while. We’re talking to owners in May about ways to ramp this up. ... The key is to have more teams enter.” As with other e-sports endeavors, Halpin said the NFL has seen a much more engaged and much younger audience tuning into its e-sports offerings. “We’re excited about the demos,” he said. As importantly, the league views e-sports competitions as the type of offseason programming that will interest hardcore NFL fans. Halpin: "We know that our fans’ appetite for a 365-day season is real. E-sports can be a great avenue for them outside of our live game windows." The NFL also is putting its programming muscle behind what it is calling the "Madden Majors." Starting next week, the NFL will host a four-week tournament, the "Madden Championship," that will be produced from ESL Studios in Burbank, Calif. Finals are scheduled for May 19-21.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2017/04/14/Events-and-Attractions/NFL-esports.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2017/04/14/Events-and-Attractions/NFL-esports.aspx

CLOSE