ePremier League Collegiate Invitational

Overview

The ePremier League Collegiate Invitational was a national tournament program built in partnership with the Premier League and NBC Sports to engage the collegiate demographic around Premier League soccer — one of the fastest-growing sports audiences in North America. I led the campaign from program design through on-site execution, coordinating across multiple campuses and major event venues.

Campaign Components

PlayVS hosted simultaneous EA FC tournaments across six college campuses during Spring 2024, creating a distributed competitive structure that let students compete locally while connected to a national bracket. Winners from each campus tournament earned a trip to the Premier League Fan Fest in Nashville to compete in the national finals — a prize that meaningfully raised the stakes of campus-level competition.

In addition to the campus activations, PlayVS operated two gaming activations at Premier League Fan Fest events, bringing organized EA FC competition directly to the 30,000+ fans who attended collectively. These activations gave casual fans a competitive touchpoint and reinforced the connection between the Premier League brand and gaming culture.

Results

The program successfully reached NBC Sports’ target of engaging the collegiate demographic at scale. Fan Fest gaming stations drew consistent traffic from the 30,000+ attendees across both events, and campus tournaments generated localized excitement with real stakes for participants.

Post-event survey data indicated that participants showed increased interest in watching Premier League matches on NBC Sports — a direct signal that interactive gaming activation can translate to broadcast audience growth. The program established a replicable model for collegiate sport-meets-gaming activations tied to major live events.