BeIN Media Group, the international pay-television broadcaster, has acquired rights in a number of territories to the All at Home Gaming Cup, a new esports competition launched by French Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain.
The competition will involve gamers compete in EA Sports’ FIFA 20 title. BeIN will broadcast the event in France, USA, the Asia-Pacific region and 24 countries across the Middle East and North Africa.
PSG launched the competition last Friday in association with Accor Live Limitless (ALL), the lifestyle loyalty programme of PSG shirt sponsor AccorHotels, the French hotel group.
In the latest example of a broadcaster pivoting towards esports during the shutdown of live sport globally, beIN will deliver a 60-minute programme covering the best goal of the week, the entire matches featuring PSG players and DaXe, and reactions from participants.
The competition received 1,400 applications within 12 hours of launching, with interest from 66 countries. The tournament will pit PSG fans and beIN viewers against one another with weekly matches to take place over the next month.
The ALL at Home Gaming Cup will offer prizes and feature unique content, with fans given the chance to compete against PSG players such as Layvin Kurzawa, Julian Draxler and Juan Bernat. The weekly matches will be followed by a fixture against PSG esports player DaXe.
There are close links between beIN and PSG with club president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi also the chairman of beIN Media Group.
Florent Houzot, programmes and on-air director for beIN Sports France, said: “With the coronavirus pandemic meaning that live physical sport is temporarily on hold in most countries, we anticipate strong viewing figures from gaming competitions like this one as fans around the world are asked to stay indoors, but want to be entertained by the teams and players they love.
“BeIN Sports already broadcasts esports tournaments including e-ligue1 and EA Fifa Global Series, but we believe now is the time to grow the traditional gaming community, which this unique and exciting 60-minute programme will do as it brings fans closer to their heroes.”
The competition will be broadcast for the first time this (Wednesday) evening. BeIN’s coverage will be supported by Webedia, the global media and technology group. Fans will be invited to upload their best goals to Twitter using the #WinatHome hashtag to be in with a chance of winning PSG merchandise.