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Looking to grow its market in the fast-growing eSports sector, Football Federation Australia (FFA) has announced competition and broadcast details for its new E-League competition.

Featuring two professional players representing each A-League team, the competition will commence on Thursday 15th February 2018, where it will be broadcast League live on Fox Sports’ platforms.

The FFA is hoping to capitalise on the popularity of eSports, and in particular the ‘FIFA’ game series created by EA Sports, to help grow the A-League fan base.

Introducing the new eSports competition, the FFA’s Head of Commercial, Digital and Marketing, Luke Bould, stated “we know there's a million-plus people who play the game in Australia and we want to give as many of them the opportunity to be involved in the E-League as possible and we're excited about that.

"A lot of them learn about the game and learn about the players in the game through that product, so we really see that as an opportunity, a strategic advantage that football has, that we'd like to expand.

"We see the ability to create a league that can be followed by the fans, and potentially have some of those fans in it, as a way to bring more people into the game whilst establishing a new league that our clubs can participate in and that the game can benefit from."

The FFA is working on a plan to have the overall champion, and potentially some of those who went close, representing the E-League in international competitions.

Bould added “anyone who thinks that this is not serious and not a legitimate sport will quickly realise that's not how the fans and the participants see it.

"We're seeing eSports coming into the Asian games in the next few years and potentially at the summer Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 so ... this has to be treated very seriously and that's how we're tackling it."

A report by market analyst NewZoo forecasts eSports revenue will hit $1.5 billion by 2020.

Image: E-League action on FIFA 18.

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