Manchester City take a bet on teaming up with FaZe Clan
Manchester City aren’t settling on their Premier League title, as they have teamed up with one of the biggest names in esports – FaZe Clan. The two organisations will join forces to unite their fanbases, introduce limited edition co-branded merchandise and host special events.
The collaborative partnership comes at a time when the link between traditional sports and competitive gaming is getting ever closer. Manchester City were one of the first English football sides to get serious about esports, and their partnership with FaZe Clan marks a big step up.
BIG NAMES IN FOOTBALL AND ESPORTS UNITE
Anybody who’s into esports betting or football betting will know that FaZe Clan and Manchester City are some of the biggest names around. The two organisations previously worked together to create two YouTube videos during the football team’s 2017 tour of the USA.
But the new partnership will see the two organisations coming together to create even more engaging content with the gaming talent and football players. There will also be plans to unveil special fan events in the USA and elsewhere, as well as one-off retail products bearing the names of Manchester City and FaZe Clan. Interestingly, members of Faze Clan and Manchester City’s FIFA gaming team will get to share the same training facility.
FaZe Clan players like the Fortnite star Nate Hill is well-known as being a massive Manchester City fan and he is sometimes wears the club’s colours during gaming tournaments. Similarly, Manchester United’s striker Raheem Stirling is known as being something of a gamer. Sadly he revealed that he still plays the FIFA game as either Liverpool or Paris Saint Germain rather than his own club.
MANCHESTER CITY AIMS TO BECOME ESPORTS SUPERPOWER
The thought of putting your esports bets on a football team might seem like an odd idea. But Manchester City and many other football sides are starting to get serious about esports.
The team hit the headlines in 2016 when they signed Kieran ‘Kez’ Brown to be their first esports player. At the moment Manchester City’s FIFA gamer is Shaun ‘Shellzz’ Springette who recently finished 27th in the Global Series Points rankings in 2019.
Manchester City was also the first Premier League team to have their own FIFA Online organisation in China, and it’s expected that this project will gradually reach across Asia. The football club also hosts popular amateur gamer events. These include the Man City Esports Cup that attracted over 10,000 football fans enter a special gaming contest.
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WHY DID MANCHESTER CITY PICK FAZE CLAN?
Manchester City will hope that the partnership gives them access to FaZe Clan’s massive online audience. With over 214 million global fans and more than 500 million monthly views of their content, FaZe Clan are a true esports superpower.
The viewing statistics for two videos that the organisations created make for interesting reading. The video shown on Manchester City’s YouTube clocked up a mere 90,000 views compared with 752,000 for FaZe Clan’s channel that shared the same video. All of which makes for one of the biggest sports and esports partnerships so far.
[cta-box postid=”57″]Featured image courtesy of ©Manchester City
