EA MADDEN, NFL, AMAZON, MOBILE AND ESPORTS
EA Madden, NFL, Amazon, Mobile and eSports (Graphic: The Next Level)
TNL Take: This Monday, EA and the NFL announced details for the upcoming Madden 18 competitive season and their partnership with the NFL around the Club Championship featuring all 32 teams.
Let's dig into what this deal means...and what it doesn't.
/01 FROM 8 TEAMS TO ALL 32
EA Madden NFL Year over Year Comparison (Infographic: The Next Level)
This is one of three big changes to EA's Club Series with NFL pro teams. While last year started with 8 - Bills, Jaguars, Chiefs, Vikings, Patriots, Eagles, Steelers and the 49ers - this year, it expands to all 32 NFL teams.
/02 PRIZE POOL
EA 2017 Club Series Champion Prize (Photo: EA Sports)
The second big change is the amount of money on the line. Last year's 8 total events were for $10K each along with the Club Finals with a $50K prize pool, bringing 2017's total to ~$130K.
Madden 18's Club Championship total prize pool of $400K+ more than triples last year's total...with a catch.
/03 STRUCTURE
In addition to the Club Series Finals being held at Pro Bowl Experience in Orlando, the winner will also receive 2 tickets to Super Bowl LII - another sign of the NFL's involvement.
/04 TWITCH PRIME
Now is where things start to get really fun.
This past Saturday morning I found something very interesting posted and tweeted the following:
EA Madden NFL 18 and Twitch Prime Integration (Photo: LinkedIn)
The reception from the community was overwhelmingly positive and a YouTube video made just around my Tweet has 20,000+ views currently:
Mr.GoldenMut YouTube Video (Photo: YouTube)
Twitch Prime and EA Madden NFL 18 Promotion (Photo: Twitch)
I've talked plenty about how Twitch Prime is genius and the ability to lure in publishers is so critical and this is another example.
/05 AMAZON'S NFL PROGRAMMING
The Patriots Winning Another Super Bowl (Photo: USA Today. Mark J. Rebilas)
In April, Twitch owner Amazon signed a partnership with the NFL for $50M to stream 10 Thursday night games to Amazon Prime members.
Everything is about selling Amazon Prime. Everything is about selling Amazon Prime. Everything is about selling Amazon Prime.
If 500K people sign up for Amazon Prime to get access to the NFL content, Amazon breaks even on the media rights. Even if they don't, it's more marketing and programming for their content chest.
/06 MADDEN MOBILE
EA Madden NFL Mobile (Photo: EA Sports)
One of the least publicized success stories in the mobile gaming space is Madden Mobile. During the NFL season the game is consistently in the Top 10 grossing on the App Store.
Go ahead and check where it is right now.
Amazon has invested greatly with Vainglory and mobile eSports and there's further opportunity here as well.
/07 TICKETING
I covered this last week with Amazon's potential disruption of another industry - ticketing - and the huge eSports opportunity that it holds.
Now add NFL ticket purchases and all the additional value provided with the points above.
/08 NFL INVOLVEMENT
Don't discount the NFL finally getting into eSports and putting their name, marketing and executives behind this initiative.
The NFL is the 800-pound gorilla on top of the media and sports food chain.
THE REAL DEAL
It's great to see the largest and most popular US sports league jump into the eSports pool.
Now add in cross promotion between EA Madden, watching Thursday NFL games on Amazon, Twitch Prime integration, Mobile, the NFL's marketing machine and the vision starts to emerge.
But here's the reality.
/01 It’s nowhere close to what Activision-Blizzard is building with their Overwatch League, Riot Games’ North American League of Legends League or the upcoming NBA 2K ELEAGUE with more than half of the pro teams included.
For both the NFL and EA to emulate OWL, LOL, and NBA2KELEAGUE in such a short amount of time would have been a herculean task. The information for the Madden 18 competitive season was released less than a week before the game launches.
/02 The total EA Madden NFL 18 prize pool increased from $1.000M to just $1.153M. EA should clear $750M+ in Ultimate Team earnings from primarily FIFA and Madden this year with continued growth.
Even the Club Series total while seeming high at $400K is the total for 32 teams - when looked at on an individual basis it's also a slight increase over last years $10K prize pool each.
A slight prize pool increase and fewer Athletes being flown out to events - while Ultimate Team dollars continue to flow in.
/03 No details were revealed around either Digital or TV distribution but I'd be shocked if the Madden 18 Championships were not either on a Disney platform or The NFL Network.
04/ Brands - where are they?
While last years Club Series did have brands present like Gillette and the Patriots, these deals were either added value or for very little revenue.
/05 This is the biggest difference between the 3 major upcoming eSports leagues and what European soccer teams are doing with their investment.
While the winners get a much larger prize pool, entry to the Madden 18 Championships and a slew of benefits, what happens with “NFL Club Winner” after this?
This program isn’t like being officially sponsored by a Paris St. Germain, which has many FIFA Athletes represent the club and provide the “3 M’s Of Why Pro Sports Teams Invest In eSports”™ - Marketing, Merchandising and Monetization.
Whichever NFL pro team does decide to become the innovator and begin emulating their European counterparts will start seeing the ROI with real investment in the eSports space much more quickly than the next teams that will quickly follow suit.