The Premier League, in partnership with Tencent Sports, Tencent Gaming and EA SPORTS, is launching ePremier League China later this month, the first ePremier League event to be staged outside the UK.

Some of the best Chinese gamers on EA SPORTS FIFA Online 4 will represent all 20 Premier League clubs alongside hand-picked content creators and influencers. They will compete together in a group stage to determine who reaches the finals in May. The tournament will be streamed live by Tencent across China and kicks off on Wednesday 28 April.

Premier League Commercial Director Will Brass said: “The EA SPORTS FIFA Online 4 video game series is one of the key channels through which fans in Asia can engage with Premier League clubs and players. After three successful ePremier League seasons in the UK, it is exciting to now be able to take this overseas for the first time and particularly to China – a hotbed for gaming and football.

“We are looking forward to working closely with EA SPORTS and our broadcast partner Tencent Sports to showcase some of the world’s best gamers in action. I am sure it will prove popular with the loyal and passionate supporters of Premier League clubs in China.”

Matches will be played on EA SPORTS FIFA Online 4 (FO4) on PC, which has more than 10 million registered players in China. Each of the 20 Premier League clubs will be represented in the tournament by two local players – one high-ranking gamer on the FO4 leader board and one influencer.

This will include famous esports commentator Guan Zeyuan and the well-known FIFA Online influencer Shen Rongjie.

The clubs will be divided into four groups of five teams, with the winners of each group advancing to a knockout stage. Group-stage matches will be played online, whereas knockout matches will be played offline at Wisdom Bay in Shanghai.

Group matches will take place between Wednesday 28 April and Saturday 8 May. The knockout phase will be held on Friday 14 May, with the Grand Final on Saturday 15 May.

The ePremier League China tournament will further complement the Premier League’s digital offerings in the country, where it has more than eight million followers across its digital and social platforms.

The tournament is being broadcast on Tencent Sports, Tencent Video and Tencent News. It will also be available on Huya, Douyu and Yizhibo.

Newest addition brings the first French-Language creator to the #GuildGang 

Today, Guild Esports announces the signing of European leading Rocket League content creator Dawson “D7RL” Berbuntes, which continues to strengthen Guild’s Rocket League offering.

After the professional team’s recent RLCS European victory, Guild has diversified its entertainment offering with a French-language creator; launching in partnership with Subway, Guild has ensured it will continue to create authentic content and support local-market creators all around the world.

At 20 years old, ex-professional player D7RL has established himself as one of Europe’s biggest Rocket League content creators. After playing three years professionally, D7RL turned his focus to content creation and has since seen incredible growth. He has over 350,000 combined followers across Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram & Twitter, and has grown over 40% since January 2021.

D7RL’s largest concentration of fans is on his YouTube channel, where he has over 173,000 subscribers and has amassed an incredible 6.3 million views in the last 30 days alone, which is a 42% increase month on month.

The signing of D7RL follows a string of other creator signings designed to bring Guild fans the very best entertainment, including Nihachu, Snowmixy, Stevie White, Gee Nelly, TN25 & SoMarcus.

Carleton Curtis, Executive Chairman of Guild Esports, said: “I’m incredibly proud to welcome the first French-language content creator to Guild. It is imperative that we are able to provide authentic content to audiences in a manner that resonates with them. D7RL allows us to do this to the French-speaking community and we are excited about the content we’ll be able to create together and expand into this market.”

Danny Lopez, Guild’s Director of Brand & Content, commented: “D7RL joining the #GuildGang brings us our first creator in France continuing our efforts towards global expansion. D7RL also bolsters up our commitment to providing the best in class Rocket League content, expect to see some collaboration with our pro-team in the near future.”

D7RL, said: “It’s a great honour to be joining Guild Esports at a time of incredible growth and success, after the professional team’s recent win at the Spring European Regional I can’t wait to take the Rocket League content to the next level.”

Gaming Innovation Group has enabled its in-house proprietary responsible gaming services as part of its ambition to help improve player safety and to support creating a more sustainable gambling environment for its partners.

The new responsible gaming features will provide GiG’s partners Insights around early detection and end-to-end lifetime monitoring capabilities for players that are likely to be vulnerable. A number of actions can be tailored specifically to the partner’s needs based on these insights.

The new features will be enabled by default as part of GiG’s real-time data platform, GiG Data and will provide operators with visibility of those at risk allowing them to intervene with actions such as direct messages in real-time.

Stephen Borg, Director of GiG Data, said: “As a continued effort to build technology that supports today’s iGaming demands, we are excited to launch our proactive capabilities for player safety as part of our data platform. This initiative will support a healthier gambling environment for our partners and their players.”