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.
