Brit football club gets into eSports

The English Premier League football club West Ham United is clearly keeping a close eye on the burgeoning eSports vertical, announcing Monday that it has signed up professional Fifa video game star Sean ‘Dragonn’ Allen.

Allen hails from Essex and was runner up to Danish player Mohamad Al-Bacha in the eSports FIFA Interactive World Cup competition earlier this year.

In a statement released by West Ham, Allen characterised his deal with the club as the biggest in a professional career that began in 2008.

In future eSports competitions he enters Allen will represent West Ham and wear his personal number 50 West Ham shirt.

Whilst the UK signing is nationally innovative, it is not the first time that an eSports professional has been selected for sponsorship by a football club; that honour goes to Wolfsburg, which signed David ‘DaveBTW’ Bytheway last year.

West Ham’s digital marketing chief Karim Virani said in a statement this week that eSports is one of the fastest growing markets in the world, and that it is likely other football clubs will see the value of establishing a presence in the high-publicity sector.

“The digital game is incredibly popular with our fans, so we are really excited about what we have in store for them,” he said.