SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Sporting Lisbon has become the latest football club to jump on the recruiting a FIFA player bandwagon by signing Portuguese player Francisco ‘Quinzas’ Cruz.
Quinzas has some pedigree having won the FIFA Interactive World Cup back in 2011.
He became the youngest ever player to do so in the process. Now 21 years old, Quinzas has been involved in the scene since he was 14 years old but will now step things up a gear by representing Sporting Lisbon at esports events.
There has been much anticipation for Sporting Lisbon’s entry into the esports world, and it won’t stop at just FIFA. Márcio Figueiredo and Pedro Silveira are the pair that will lead the esports division.
Their responsibility will be to “responsible to create and manage several esports teams, in different games”. There have already been notable partners signed up in the form of G2A, Elgato, Ozone Gaming, LG Electronics and Gamer Shop. The first major event the club will hold will be the Lion Games in August.
This will have the attractive prize of the winner becoming an official Sporting Lisbon esports player alongside Quinzas.
The FIFA esports scene has been given boost after boost in the past few months. Manchester City signed player of their own in Kieran ‘Kez’ Brown, whilst EA’s Competitive Gaming Division Head Peter Moore has been quite vocal about the company’s aim to focus on developing FIFA into a major esports title.
Moore said recently that the aim is to create “feeder systems feeding up all the way up until the FIFA Interactive World Cup.”
