Interview: Why PSG and football clubs are investing in esports
Over the last decade, hundreds of football clubs have invested in esports (competitive gaming), even Champions League 2025 winners Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).
In fact, PSG were one of first clubs to commit to the industry having competed in various esports, including EA FC and League of Legends, since 2016.
Esports News UK spoke with Nadia Benmokhtar, a former professional footballer who is now the Diversification & Merchandising Director at Paris Saint-Germain.
We spoke to her about why clubs are investing in esports, what the potential benefits are, and how PSG strategically approaches the industry to attract new fans.
Let’s get right into it, what is the appeal specifically of esports for PSG and for other football clubs?
Yeah, I think for all the football clubs, the interest is nearly the same.
It’s to grow the audience across different touchpoints, increase the brand exposure, and also diversify that audience because we want to target people that are not especially football fans at the beginning.
But with esports, you can create a different kind of connection. We know that it’s a very engaged market.
It’s also a way to target different territories. If you look at PSG, as an example, the French League is not very visible in Asia. So you can say that through esports, you will find a different way to connect with this type of audience.
So it’s really part of the club strategy. So first, we are a multi-club sport. We have football, of course, men’s football, but we also have women’s football, handball, judo, and esports is really considered as a sports section in the club.
But for sure, we aim to be at PSG, the club of the new generation. That’s our brand positioning. And when you say new generation, of course, gaming should be part of it.
So the specificity of PSG is that maybe sometimes we dare to do more things than other clubs. And when we entered into esports in 2016, we have been the first club to go not only on FIFA, which was the natural bridge, but on all the games. Because we decided, OK, if we enter esports, we need to target big games with big audiences.
And we were the first football club to have teams wearing their jersey on the stage for League of Legends and Dota. So that’s where we were a bit different. But yes, the objective is to diversify the audience by entering the modern and tech-oriented market.
And it also resonates with the sports market because you have a lot of cross opportunities when it comes to performance, when it comes to events. So that’s, of course, a tool that a lot of clubs are using. We have been one of the first ones, but humbly, because we know that we are not really experts.
And that’s why we rely also on external partners to do so. But that was how we did this. We needed to enter a new market to target new audience in a new enterprise.
You say that PSG wanted to go to games with bigger audiences. What was the overall strategy to then go into these games and then convert esports fans into PSG fans? Is it just, we’re going to go in and be as competitive as possible? Is it going into content or doing shared events that connect the two?
That’s a bit of both because, of course, when we enter a sport, any sport at PSG, we want to have this performance vision. And we want to have a team able to win any competition in which they will engage.
So is it at the local level or the international level? Of course, one of the filters is to build a serious team that can compete at the highest level. But we will also work on the brand strategy and the brand position.
If you look at the partnership we have with Talon, it’s more than just performance because we really connect when it comes to identity, coolness, and merchandising.
They have this lifestyle positioning to be more than just an esports team and to have a cultural and entertaining way of communicating with the fans.
So that’s where we meet and Team Vitality is the same. If you look at the French esports market, Vitality is more than just a team.
It’s a real brand and we need to find partners with whom we can align on performance and vision. But also coolness, let’s say, and also the values. Because, you know, esports better than me.
Some people come thinking they will just earn a lot of money. Some people just come for communication. We look for partners that are also sustainable, that want stability.
We made some mistakes in the past with teams that appear and disappear. But we are trying to select partners that will match with our long-term vision and try to be as stable as possible and avoid fireworks, but to be consistent and sustainable in our presence.
And how important are those partner teams to you and your strategy? We repeatedly hear in the esports industry that when a brand enters it, it needs to understand the industry and connect with the fans directly.
That’s very important because, as I said, either you want to do it yourself, but you need to be very confident in your expertise. And you cannot become a gaming expert overnight.
So you decide to hire people, to build it internally. Either you can decide to partner with people that you consider as experts. And that’s really what we want to be when we partner with Vitality or with Talon, is to say humbly, you know the esports market and the player system and the performance better than us in this territory.
But as PSG, we can bring a lot of value, not only in terms of brand, but also in terms of expertise when it comes to performance. So we really create bridges. Like as an example, our EA FC players are followed by the same nutritionists as our pro players.
And that’s the type of stuff that we can build. And the idea is really to join expertise to bring more value, like share knowledge, join forces.
You are better than us in doing this. You can bring this to the table and try to have the best team and the best positioning as possible. So that’s what we are trying to do. And that’s why we want to avoid a multiplication of partners.
If we have Talon in Asia, we have a very good relationship with them. We trust them when it comes to League of Legends. And then, okay, we decide to open Rainbow Six with you instead of going with somebody else.
Our objective is to have a few strong partners, reliable, so we can share experience and try to share success, of course.
On Talon specifically, obviously you mentioned earlier how it helps you market in Asia. Can you talk a bit more about how esports helps you market globally, and also has that relationship with Talon helped PSG accomplish things in Asia that you wouldn’t have been able to do previously?
So, Asia was one of the key territories for us when we launched.
And I think you know that we had an important partnership on the game Dota 2 with a Chinese company, LGD.
So we had a very successful team with LGD, but at the end, Dota became a game very costly. To us, it didn’t make sense to just spend millions in player salaries with no return on investment.
We just decided to exit this game because we were not comfortable with the model. But I take this example because LGD, the story was a bit different than Talon.
LGD was already a big structure, and we decided to partner with them to enter esports, and it was a big booster, and our team was very visible.
So of course we have captured the eyes, we analysed the reach, the audience, the exposure, and sometimes you just realise the funny thing is that when players enter the stage at TI or LoL Worlds with a jacket, and then the day after the jacket is sold out on the football e-commerce website.
So you have direct link. The cap here, number one, is more the audience and the reach, to be honest, than the financial conversion because it’s not so easy.
But at the moment, we are very happy with this. So with LGD, it was a new partner with a team that is already very big, and you just enter and do a big, big push. With Talon, the story was a bit different because we really grew together.
We partnered at the very beginning of their story because we had this match, as I said, in terms of DNA, how do we want to manage the brand, how we want to build the team. And that’s very cool that now the storytelling is positive because they are successful. They are playing at LoL Worlds once again this year.
But it was a kind of bet at the beginning because you never really know if it will be successful or not. So we are very happy with this partnership and with this story.
Today, we are happy with the League of Legends team. We are happy with the Rainbow Six team. We are discussing every day with Talon about sometimes, why not another team in this territory on this game?
There is no hot plan now, but they are definitely one of the partners we want to continue the story with.
PSG have been involved in esports for quite a lot of years now, they started in 2016. I was wondering, has PSG seen a return on investment in esports? There has to be something for you to stick around that long, or is this just a really long-term plan?
As I said before, it depends on what kind of return you want. As I said, the initial objective was not pure revenue, it was more exposure. So if you look at brand exposure, fan engagement, brand coolness, yes, for sure, the return is there.
If you look at the finance, not yet, but I think it will come. And it’s also a way to link it with the future strategy. I think we entered into esports with esports’ competitive aspect, but now we feel that there is a lot of other roads to explore.
You can have this flag with the esports team at the competitive level, but explore other opportunities in casual gaming.
We are exploring esports academy topics, we are signing now some in-game licensing, you have all the content creation vertical, why not tomorrow organise esports events or gaming events, like with music, with culture, with fashion shows?
So we really feel that we are now only at the beginning of the story when it comes to PSG and gaming. We entered through esports and I think that was great because that gives us also credibility now to speak about all the other verticals.
But I think in our future plans, of course, if we have the opportunity to have one or two other teams, professional teams, esports teams, why not?
But we will also work on exploring all those verticals to enter this more global gaming place.
We can do it on our own sometimes, we can do it sometimes with Vitality or with Talon, it depends on what we want to do.
There is a lot of new things to explore, so that’s like the beginning of a new cycle, let’s say. Capitalize on the esports success and then expand to other activities.
Obviously it’s difficult to measure, when you talk about wanting to convert fans. Has PSG seen an increase in fandom or does it even matter if you make gaming fans into football fans or is it enough to just have them as a fan of the brand as a whole?
Sometimes we have a lot of people that are both football fans and esports fans, especially if you look at FIFA, EA FC games in France, even all players, they are football fans, and all fans or esports fans are football active followers.
It’s less direct, I think, for the other games. Of course, if you can convert an esports fan into a football fan, a PSG fan, it’s cool.
But I think what we want is to have a PSG fan. And if you are a fan of the club because you are a fan of our League of Legends team, that’s enough for me. I’m happy to have you in my base.
And our whole job is to offer them what they want as an esports fan. That’s why we have a lot of work internally at the moment about the database and where are the fans and who they are and what are they expecting from us?
If you are a young League of Legends fan based in Hong Kong and you love PSG thanks to esports and you are just expecting us to be able to sell you an esports jersey in Hong Kong, which is not the case now, we will try to develop this to be able to make you happy.
Of course, yes. When there is a connection, that’s cool. And that’s sometimes the purpose of organising a contest between one football player and one esports player on EA FC.
And you can create great moments and cool storytelling.
But if you just have more fans globally thanks to your different activities, that’s okay. We don’t need more than that.
You kind of touched on it earlier, but how does PSG decide what esports titles they want to compete in?
As I said, we are not in a rush to go into more and more titles. Today we have four different titles and that’s okay.
But basically, we will always open new, explore new opportunities.
We will look first, what is the audience of the game? If nobody is watching it or playing it, it’s not super valuable. What are the territories where the game is strong? So we can link with all key territories in terms of development.
At the club today, the key target that we have is the US market, of course. UK, Japan, Korea, Middle East. So we can also say, there is this good opportunity in the US and the game is strong in the US.
So we look at the audience, the territory, the potential of return of investment.
As I said, if we need to invest 20 million just to enter with a very risky one, probably we won’t go compared to other structures. So what is the original investment?
And then, do you want to go with a team? Do we want to go on our own? And it’s also a question of opportunities because sometimes, very often, that’s the team themselves that are contacting us.
‘Hey, we are planning to go to this game. Do you want to come with us?’ And we just have this discussion and the opportunity comes.
But basically, the criteria will be audience, potential of ROI, key territories, and making sure that we are not duplicating the same game or the same audience that we already have, but we will go to a new market.
And then more locally, obviously, Vitality are also Paris-based. Are there any plans to do more things with them and maybe hold events in Paris?
Yes, this is just the beginning of the partnership. But for sure, it has been part of even the first discussion. The first discussion we had was about EA FC, because it was about the French eLigue 1 and how we can partner.
But from the very beginning, we explored other opportunities, because as I said, Vitality is not a basic team.
It’s a best-in-class. And they are very good when it comes to entertainment, events, ideas.
So, we have nothing to announce now, because nothing is really concrete. But yes, in our head, we have a lot of ideas for events, for B2B offers.
Like, I don’t know, you are a company, you want to do a seminar with PSG and Vitality, so we can welcome you at PSG Stadium with Vitality teachers to teach you some stuff.
We can have B2B activities, we can have B2C activities, we can develop the products, we can develop the experiences for kids to come to learn sports with us.
We have tons of ideas. You can play football in the morning and EA FC in the afternoon. We are discussing a lot of things. It’s all work in progress now.
But yes, for sure, as I said, it’s part of our global strategy to not be only in competitive sports, but in casual gaming and speaking to a lot of people.
And I’m sure we can do this, yes, with Vitality for sure in Paris. We have facilities, skilled people and motivation, so we can do it for sure.
That was my experience growing up, as I’d go out and play football with my friends in the day, then we’d go home and play video games together at night.
It’s a way to reassure the parents to say, no, they won’t only spend 12 hours in front of the screen, they will also practice sports in between.
So yes, we are very creative and Vitality is very creative. So we just need to structure, develop, prioritise. But for sure, some things will happen. Sure.
And just to finish things off, again, you kind of covered it, but what are PSG’s plans with esports moving forward? And ultimately, what your goals within the esports industry?
So on specific esports, we don’t have concrete plans now to develop new teams.
Even if we are exploring opportunities on mobile, because as you know, the esports landscape is changing a lot when it comes to mobile. So we have Arena of Valor currently, but it’s really local, specific, and oriented in Thailand.
So yeah, we are exploring why not to enter another mobile game in the future, probably in Asia, but nothing is certain, so it’s hard to communicate on it.
We have discussions for cool PSG items in some games, just a basic licensing concept. So we are developing it. Nothing is signed yet, so I cannot say more.
But yes, I think we are entering this phase I was thinking about earlier. Not being only a professional esports structure, but entering and having a touch of PSG into a different field.
I don’t know if you’ve seen what we’ve done in Roblox last year. It was super impactful. We had 8 million players, 3 million players in just a few weeks.
So yeah, sometimes we just test new concepts, new things, and when it works, why not just reiterate? We have a lot of ideas, as I said, we just need time, prioritisation, and make sure that things are done properly.
I’m not surprised to hear that you’re looking at mobile esports at the moment. I know Vitality just partnered with a team recently in Indonesia, where mobile gaming has become massive.
As I said, it’s hard sometimes to anticipate the market. Because, as I said before, when we enter a game, we prefer something with no risk, stable.
But it’s always up to the game creator to change the rule from one day to another. So sometimes you need to wait a little bit until the game is really established. But sometimes it’s too late, so we’re just trying to anticipate the trends.
And that’s where it’s precious to have Vitality or to have Talon, because they have this expertise of knowing the market.
It’s also interesting to hear that you’re willing to try things and take risks. I guess a bigger football club can have that luxury, but usually I would expect a bigger football club to play it safe. So I find it interesting that you guys are willing to try different things.
Yeah, but it’s also PSG DNA to try, test and learn.
I think that it is what it takes to be innovative, because you cannot innovate without taking some risks.
But let’s say a reasonable risk depends on what it can cost in terms of money. And also not to damage the brand, because we ask fans to be loyal and we want them to be respectful.
So when we enter Fortnite in the US and then we stopped one year after, it’s not really the kind of experience that we want to offer the fans.
We can take risks sometimes, but we don’t want to be just mercenaries or, let’s say sharks or vikings. We don’t want just to enter, come, take and leave. We just want to have a sustainable, respectful link with the fans. So that’s always where you need to find the right balance.
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