EA Sports has reportedly signed a naming deal for Spain’s La Liga
EA Sports is set to become the main sponsor of Spain’s top football division, La Liga.
That’s according to a Marca report, which claims that the video game publisher will take over Santander as the main sponsor of the league, which is home to Barcelona, Real Madrid and more.
Electronic Arts will reportedly pay 30 million euros a year for the sponsorship, which will begin at the start of the 2023/24 season and see the league known as La Liga EA Sports.
La Liga confirmed it was ending its relationship with Santander last month.
EA has already pushed its EA Sports branding with a sponsorship deal with England’s Premier League. Since 2016, EA Sports has appeared in on-screen branding, on player awards and on referees’ kits.
The new sponsorship deal will arrive at a key time for Electronic Arts’ brand development, with 2023 set to see the arrival of EA Sports’ first football game since breaking away from the FIFA brand.
After FIFA 23’s release later this year, EA will rebrand its football games as EA Sports FC, ending a near-30-year relationship with the footballing body.
The company insists that despite losing the FIFA brand, its games will not change that much. Thanks to over 300 licensing deals, “the same great experiences, modes, leagues, tournaments, clubs and athletes” will be included in EA Sports FC, it said in May.
In its own statement, FIFA said that the split from EA will allow it to launch new football video games developed with third-party studios and publishers, “providing more choice for football and gaming fans”.
According to the footballing body, discussions are currently ongoing with “leading game publishers, media companies and investors” in regard to the development of a new FIFA simulation football game for 2024,
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