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Research Outline

Prepared for Patricia | Delivered September 10, 2019

Qatar National Football Team

Goals

To understand a possible valuation for rights to use the Qatar National Football Team in the FIFA 20 video game.

Early Findings

  • Recently, Juventus made the news for refusing rights to FIFA 20, as they signed an exclusive deal with PES 2020. However, no financial details were disclosed despite extensive examination of press releases and news articles about the topic.
  • Further news stories about Liverpool and La Liga also did not disclose how much the licensing was worth.
  • It was found that EA Sports paid the (English) Premier League $28.3 million per year over three years for various rights. While this deal covers more than just EPL's presence in FIFA games, it is a good benchmark.
  • An older source states that EA Sports usually pays around $35 million to a league for its licensing rights to teams and players.
  • FIFA's revenue reports show they are paid $185 million for licensing rights. Some of this is from EA Sports, but the figure is higher for 2018 due to the 2018 eWorld Cup. Unfortunately, EA Sports is not specifically named.
  • Turning to examining the reports from national football teams, the FA, who governs the English national team, made £79 million last year from sponsorship and licensing rights. US Soccer made $52 million last year from all sponsorship, licensing and TV broadcast rights. UEFA's annual report shows that it made €453.8 million in all its commercial rights profit. The Italian football governing body lists €414.8 million in commercial rights revenue.
  • Real Madrid had €299 million budgeted as income from football team marketing (which includes licensing deals and sponsorships) revenue. Despite EA Sports being mentioned in the report, the exact financials of the deal are not disclosed.
  • EA's annual report is, of course, for the whole company. Under their licensing section, prices paid for FIFA (game) related partnerships are not broken down. EA has $899 million in licensing commitments and it states it has $405 million in cost of service revenue, which would include money paid for licensing teams. FIFA is one of their biggest titles, but no other information is offered.