The FCFL announced three major partnerships last week. Each of these is important on its own, and combined they will provide FCFL broadcasts with the exposure and the polish that they’ll need to get millions of fans involved.
The first (and least surprising) is a partnership with Twitch. This will provide fans with a great platform for viewing FCFL games and for interacting with the games (by making in-game decisions) and with each other. I also have a great deal of respect for Amazon (Twitch’s parent company) and think that FCFL has definitely put themselves in a great position to succeed by aligning with them. This will be the first ‘traditional’ sports league that broadcasts its games on Twitch (which also broadcasts most major esports leagues), and as such, should be an important project from Twitch’s point of view.
Production of the broadcasts will be handled by IMG – the same company that owns the UFC. This should ensure a high quality to the production. No chance of a single viewpoint provided by a shaky cameraman using his cell phone!
Entertainment industry titan CAA will also be involved with FCFL, although it’s slightly less clear exactly what they’ll be doing. It appears that they’ll assist with involvement in a variety of partnerships and distribution ventures. As more details become clear, I’ll be sure to share them in future articles.
From my point of view, these partnerships are great news, with each of them likely to contribute to the FCFL’s success. The only potential downside is that partners of this importance may have demands or place constraints on the FCFL which could potentially lead to a slower (although ultimately more successful) rollout of the league.
