EA's eSports division signs deal with ESPN on 'FIFA'

Get ready to see a lot more of Madden NFL and FIFA video games on your TV.

Publisher Electronic Arts announced Friday a long-term deal with ESPN to begin airing a competitive video game tournament based on its soccer franchise FIFA. Live coverage of the FIFA Ultimate Team Championship starts Saturday with the tournament's regional final in Paris.

The network will carry it live on ESPN Deportes and ESPN 3, and a tape-delay broadcast will air on the flagship ESPN network the following day.

"We've long believed in the potential of competitive gaming to reach an even broader audience once games are more accessible to play and more accessible to watch," said Todd Sitrin, senior vice president for EA's Competitive Gaming Division.

EA is also expanding partnerships with the NFL Network and Univision to include more coverage of competitive tournaments involving Madden NFL, its popular pro football video game series. Both networks will carry additional events -- The Madden Bowl, Madden Challenge and the Madden Championship -- through the year.

NFL Network will air the finals of the Madden Bowl on Friday at 5 p.m. ET.

Sitrin also sees opportunities to create additional programming beyond events themselves. "This is more than just taking competitions and putting them on air," he says. "Obviously, ESPN has created content around competitive gaming that fills in the calendar in between competitive events. The NFL Network has done the same."

EA launched its Competitive Gaming Division in 2015 in a push to enter the growing eSports market. Superdata Research projects revenue from eSports will reach $1.4 billion by 2019.

EA's plan will initially focus on three games: Madden, FIFA and first-person shooter Battlefield.

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.