EA sets up its own esports division

Electronic Arts has started its own esports division led by EA Sports operations chief Peter Moore. With this, EA enters a market in which its games already played a role, but the publisher itself has not yet.

With the introduction of EA’s own Competitive Gaming Division, the publisher aims to set up global competitions for the FIFA, Madden NFL, and Battlefield series, among others. By introducing the CGD, EA is trying to tap into existing competitions for these games.

Battlefield 4, for example, already has a presence in esports through an Electronic Sports League division. ESL One has had a prize pool of more than $150,000 for Battlefield 4 for the year 2015. The competitive aspect is central to these games and as such they lend themselves well to esports.

With the decision to start its own esports division, EA is following in the footsteps of Activision Blizzard. It had already announced in October that it would open its own division for esports. The esports market has grown in size in recent years and is also attracting more and more attention from the public. To illustrate: the 2015 World Cup for League of Legends broke the old record with 9 million viewers with 36 million viewers.