The Ligue de Football Professionnel, which operates the French football league, has awarded rights for e-Ligue 1, a new nationwide esports competition, to pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports and online media company Webedia.
The LFP said that it accepted the joint bid from beIN Sports and Webedia after assessing the market.
Last month, the LFP announced that it had teamed up with game developer Electronic Arts’ EA Sports division to launch e-Ligue 1, which will feature representatives of all 20 Ligue 1 top-tier clubs competing against each other on the FIFA 17 football video game.
Gamers will be able to register for the competition on the www.e-ligue1.com website from today (Wednesday), with the first phase of the 2016-17 campaign – a winter tournament – beginning on Friday and running until January.
BeIN Sports and Webedia will also show the second spring tournament in February and March 2017 and then the play-offs in May of next year.