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Tag: LALIGA EA SPORTS

  • Fancode kicks off exclusive five-year Laliga partnership in India

    Fancode kicks off exclusive five-year Laliga partnership in India

    MUMBAI: FanCode, India’s go-to sports platform, has clinched a five-year exclusive deal with Laliga, bringing Spanish football’s top-tier action to Indian screens. Starting with this weekend’s high-stakes ElClásico between Real Madrid and Barcelona, FanCode will stream all Laliga EA Sports and Laliga Hypermotion matches — live and in HD.

    The partnership promises wall-to-wall coverage of 380 top-flight Laliga games each season, alongside Laliga Hypermotion fixtures. Fans can catch every match on FanCode’s mobile app, TV app (Android TV, Fire TV, Jio STB, Samsung, LG), and website — all without a hitch.

    Laliga’s star power — featuring football greats like Jude Bellingham, Robert Lewandowski, Vinicius Jr, and Antoine Griezmann — has made it a fan favourite in India. With its clubs already boasting massive followings, from Real Madrid to FC Barcelona, FanCode is poised to expand that popularity with a 360-degree marketing blitz. Expect community events, marquee screenings, social media takeovers, and even player visits to India.

    Laliga president Javier Tebas said: “We are delighted to have FanCode partner with us for the Indian market. At Laliga, we always look for best-in-class partners to deliver Spanish football to fans everywhere. FanCode brings strong local expertise and shares our passion for growing the league’s reach. We look forward to working together over the next five years to bring the best of Spanish football to fans in India.”

    FanCode  cofounder Yannick Colaco added: “We’ve seen first-hand the incredible fan following that Laliga commands in India. With top-tier clubs and world-class players on display, fans can expect high-quality football week in, week out. Our 360-degree approach will ensure a seamless experience across all touchpoints — be it live streaming, engaging with fans to build a strong community or taking the league to new fans. We’re excited to work closely with Laliga to grow the league’s popularity in India.”

    FanCode, which reaches over 160 million sports fans and has logged 50 million app downloads, is already a dominant player in Indian sports streaming, with partnerships across ICC, Formula 1, MotoGP, and more. This new deal with Laliga is set to score big with football fans nationwide.

  • FC Barcelona lead the top five European leagues for minutes played by teenagers

    FC Barcelona lead the top five European leagues for minutes played by teenagers

    Mumbai: The academies of LALIGA EA SPORTS clubs have long been renowned for producing world-class talents, and a new report from the CIES Football Observatory has underlined that Spanish clubs’ youth development remains as strong as ever.

    The report, titled “Youth employment: World rankings”, ordered clubs based on the percentage of minutes in their domestic league matches which have gone to young players over the past year, from April 2023 to April 2024. When looking at U20s – that is to say, teenager players – it’s FC Barcelona who comes out on top for all clubs in Europe’s five major leagues, as 15 per cent of the LALIGA EA SPORTS minutes given out by Xavi have been to teenage talents, such as Lamine Yamal, Gavi and Pau Cubarsí.

    As Xavi explained earlier this season in a press conference: “We must trust the young players, the homegrown players. I think they’re ready, as I see their faces and they’re hungry. I’m really excited about this because it’s a solid and brave decision.”

    It wasn’t only U20s that the CIES Football Observatory analysed. The report also detailed the percentages for other age categories, and FC Barcelona came second in Europe’s top five leagues for the fielding of U19s. 9.0 per cent of the Catalan club’s minutes in the past year were for players who hadn’t yet celebrated their 19th birthday, and only Ligue 1’s Toulouse FC had a higher percentage, at 9.1 percent.

    In terms of U21s, FC Barcelona are third with 22.0 per cent, only behind the French sides RC Strasbourg (26.8 per cent) and Lyon (23.2 per cent). And, Barça are joined near the top of this ranking by other LALIGA EA SPORTS sides, as Valencia CF are fifth for minutes played by U21s, with 15.6 per cent, while Girona FC is sixth in the ranking, with 14.2 per cent.

    It’s Valencia CF who is the top-rated Spanish club in the report’s rankings for U22s and U23s, sitting second for the use of U22s in Europe’s major leagues, with 28.1 per cent of Rúben Baraja’s minutes going to players in this age category, and fourth on the continent for U23s, with 37.6 per cent.

    When looking at the top 20 clubs for use of U23s in Europe’s five major leagues, only France’s Ligue 1 has more representatives than LALIGA EA SPORTS, with Valencia CF, Girona FC, Villarreal CF and FC Barcelona all featuring highly in this ranking.

    LALIGA EA SPORTS’ use of homegrown players

    This latest CIES Football Observatory looked strictly at age, but another report from the same institution earlier this season similarly studied the use of homegrown players by clubs in the top European leagues. In that study, they counted the players who’d spent at least three seasons at a training club between the ages of 15 and 21.

    Five of the top six in the standings for clubs with academy alumni in their current squads were LALIGA EA SPORTS clubs: Athletic Club were first (16 players), Real Sociedad were second (12 players), Valencia CF were third (11 players) and then CA Osasuna, UD Las Palmas and Bundesliga side SC Freiburg were joint-fourth, with nine academy graduates each.

    It’s clear to see, then, that Spanish clubs are developing many quality players in their academies and then placing trust in these talents in important LALIGA EA SPORTS fixtures. That’s a brave approach, as Xavi outlined, but one which can lead to very bright futures for these teams.  

  • Electronic Arts and Skyesports tie-up to bring EA SPORTS FC Mobile Campus Tour

    Electronic Arts and Skyesports tie-up to bring EA SPORTS FC Mobile Campus Tour

    Mumbai: Electronic Arts (EA) has tied up with Skyesports for its legendary mobile football game, EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile, bringing the title to colleges across the country in an exciting campus tour. The EA SPORTS FC™  Mobile Campus Tour will happen at six colleges in as many different cities of the country in November and December 2023.

    The EA SPORTS FC™  Mobile Campus Tour will take over one college for a full day with an interactive booth featuring EA SPORTS FC™  Mobile grassroot competitive matches, giveaways, and meet-and-greets with some of the most renowned gaming content creators in the country including Ungraduate Gamer, Kaztro, Doctor Gaming, Tanvee, and Karan Shinde.

    EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile  provides an unrivaled authentic football experience on mobile devices and features more than 15,000 fully licensed players across over 650 teams and over 30 leagues – including the UEFA Champions League, Premier League, LALIGA EA SPORTS, Bundesliga, and many more. True Player Personality is at the core of bringing this authenticity to life in-game, reflecting player characteristics with distinct strengths and weaknesses that diversify gameplay and team building.

    The EA SPORTS FC Mobile Campus Tour will land in six different colleges across as many different cities. The complete list of cities and colleges will be announced on Skyesports’ Instagram handle soon. Students can attend to participate in giveaways while showing off their skills in EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile.

    Commenting on the association with EA, Skyesports’ founder and CEO Shiva Nandy, said, “We are absolutely thrilled to partner with EA for the FC Mobile Campus Tour. At Skyesports, we’re dedicated to nurturing the gaming culture at its roots, and this collaboration allows us to bring the exhilaration of  EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile directly to college campuses. We’re excited to witness students from six diverse cities engage in the FC Mobile Campus Tour, showcasing their skills, participating in giveaways, and meeting their favorite gaming influencers. This partnership is about fostering community, celebrating talent, and igniting the passion for EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile among the current generation of gamers.”

  • The ‘Osasuna Experience’ is launched as an innovative way to live football

    The ‘Osasuna Experience’ is launched as an innovative way to live football

    Mumbai: CA Osasuna is continuing to grow thanks to a forward-thinking model and the desire to place club members, supporters and sponsors at the centre of all social and commercial activities. This was clear to see with the recent launch of several spaces inside their stadium, called El Sadar, where a series of innovative services are being offered to supporters. There are hospitality areas, for staging events and for experiencing matches of Los Rojillos in an exclusive way, and there are new VIP seats to make games even more special. By implementing these changes and by redeveloping the stadium as a whole in 2021, the club is clearly looking to offer fans and partners even more exclusive experiences, and this should make the stadium a profitable venue 365 days a year.

    With this, CA Osasuna is following the trend of many LALIGA EA SPORTS clubs in seeking to offer a better service to supporters and to sponsors. In this case, they’re doing so by providing almost double the number of hospitality areas in order to meet the ever-increasing demand for VIP seats at El Sadar, which is helping the Navarre club to achieve economic goals. As the club stated: “With the El Sadar redevelopment from a few years ago, we are working to expand and improve the hospitality areas available at the stadium, as we understand that the demand for this type of space is increasing. The proof is that we have practically doubled the capacity of this type of area and the current occupancy 0rate is over 90 per cent. This has allowed us to improve the experience that many fans have at our matches and to considerably increase the profitability of the stadium. We realised that we should include all of the stadium operations, those of matchdays and of non-matchdays, under one banner, which is ‘Osasuna Experience’.”

    At CA Osasuna, directors are aware of the importance of building loyalty and improving the service they provide to fans and partners. They believe that, when it comes to sponsors, it’s important to be able to offer them exclusive spaces and experiences within the club facilities, so that these companies can organise business days or events where they can invite their own partners and customers. This forms part of the ‘Osasuna Experience’. The club explained: “It’s important for us that our sponsors do not see us simply as a space for advertising on the shirt or on a board. That model is no longer as successful as it was a few years ago. Nowadays, our sponsors are interested in being able to link their sponsorship to experiences that they can offer to their clients or commercial partners, such as being able to come to the stadium to watch a match, enjoy a tour or simply attend an event.”

    For Los Rojillos, it’s especially important to be able to make use of the venue on days when there isn’t a football fixture. They said: “It’s vital for the club to be prepared to offer these types of experiences, otherwise we’d be shutting ourselves off from the modern concept of sponsorship. That’s why the use of our rooms and hospitality areas isn’t limited to matchdays. Instead, we offer spaces that can be used 365 days a year to adapt to what companies demand nowadays. For a sponsor, it can sometimes be more useful to hold an event at El Sadar on a working day for their best clients or salespeople than to have an advertising board at the ground.”

    Moreover, CA Osasuna recognises that fan loyalty is very high and that offering new VIP experiences, as with the ‘Osasuna Experience’, only enhances the image of the club in the eyes of the fanbase. The club added: “Since the redevelopment of the stadium, which now has around 23,500 seats, we can’t take on more members and currently have around 3,000 people on the waiting list, and we can only offer a small quota each season. This season, for example, the renewal rate was over 99 per cent.”

    Furthermore, occupancy rates for the hospitality spaces are also very high. The club concluded: “The private boxes we have for companies are all sold out and there are businesses on the waiting list. There are also several areas where the VIP seats are sold individually and we also have an occupancy rate of around 90 per cent there, while the rest of those seats are put on sale for each match.”