BT Sport makes a move into eSports with Gfinity
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Editor
| 11 May 2020

With its regular sports roster put on hold through the Covid-19 outbreak, BT Sport has embarked on plans to extend its eSports offer through a partnership with Gfinity to deliver a series of celebrity-led gaming entertainment shows.

The new programming draws upon BT Sport’s existing talent, including former Premier League Robbie Savage and Joe Cole; singer/footballer Chelcee Grimes; and rugby union player Ugo Monye. The four-team tournament, each captained by a member of the BT Sport talent team will also feature other stars from the world of rugby, and men’s and women’s football. An all-female squad will be led by Grimes.

The BT Sport FIFA Challenge series kicked off on 8 May with a draft show and will be followed by weekly matches between the celebrity squads culminating in a Grand Final on 5 June.

The partners will co-produce the series with each episode produced remotely using BT’s newly developed technology alongside Gfinity’s experience in managing multi-feed gameplay. Gfinity and BT Sport will together over the coming months to devise new concepts in the esports space with a view to these series continuing long after the current coronavirus crisis has ended.

Commenting on the move, Jamie Hindhaugh, COO BT Sport, said: “Lockdown has meant that we have been looking at new content and formats to give our viewers their sport fix while there is no live sport. The good news is that this has accelerated our esports plans with Gfinity and we’ll be kicking this off in May, using our market leading remote production capabilities, with a fun, chat based, FIFA gaming format with plenty of competition between our BT Sport teams that we hope our viewers will enjoy.”

Added, Amanda Lawson, Gfinity’s global head of content: “To finally get to bring a show to the screen in partnership with BT Sport is extremely exciting. Our focus this year has been on developing formats and shows that work for TV audiences in a way that ‘traditional esports’ has previously come up short. As with all good TV shows, this series will feature top talent, a unique and entertaining format and a fiercely contested competition. We very much look forward to working with BT Sport on further esports concepts and to bringing exciting new shows to their viewers.”