Mentioned in this article Games: Dota 2 Teams: LGD Gaming

Update — 11/05/2018: In a statement to Dexerto, Real Madrid’s press team has confirmed that the Weibo post announcing the club’s expansion into FIFA Online was not an official account.

Today, popular football club Real Madrid announced that it was entering the world of esports. Abacus News reported that the organization is looking to start its esports initiative in China, having made an announcement on Chinese microblogging site Weibo.

Real Madrid is looking to sign a team to compete in FIFA Online 4. FIFA Online is a free-to-play iteration of the popular FIFA series built specifically for the Asian market. The game was developed by EA Spearhead, a South Korean division of Electronic Arts .

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The game’s Android version is distributed by Tencent , the company which also owns the mobile distribution rights in China for PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS . Tencent also organizes FIFA Online’s professional league in China, the FSL, where Real Madrid intends to compete.

Several European football clubs have large fan bases in China, and Real Madrid is not the first team to use esports as an entry point into the country’s esports market. In 2017, Olympique Lyonnais signed a professional FIFA Online team. Last month, French club Paris-Saint Germain signed a partnership deal with LGD Gaming’s Dota 2 team.

According to Real Madrid’s Weibo post (translated from Mandarin), “The club hopes to be able to expand the interaction channel between the club and Chinese fans through the establishment of esports teams.”