Football is undoubtedly the most popular and widely viewed sport in Malta, so it is only natural that with the advent of esports, football has also established itself as one of Malta’s premier esports categories.

The Malta Independent on Sunday interviewed Kersten James Chircop, the Business Development director at GMR Concepts, the organisation responsible for managing the BOV ePremier League in collaboration with the Malta Football Association. Additionally, he serves as the vice president of the Malta Esports Association.

The newsroom also reached out to Kurt Bonnici, the MFA’s Esports Project manager, to speak about the ePremier League’s history and how it operates.

Bonnici said that the ePremier League started as an idea that evolved from the Football Symposium in 2019. He said that as an association, the MFA believed that it needed to open the door to everyone and “encourage youths to follow and support the beautiful game”. With that in mind, it came to the conclusion that the most effective way to do so would be to merge esports and sports through the BOV ePremier League.

The MFA’s Esports Project manager explained that the Malta BOV ePremier League is a jointly organised competition between the MFA and GMR, and that this partnership has been ongoing for the past five years and counting.

The GMR Business Development director said that EA Sports, the game development studio behind the games that the league is based around, granted the MFA and GMR the licence to host the inaugural Malta ePremier League thanks to the MFA’s engagement and strong interest in the esports industry.

He continued that thanks to that licence, as well as the licence of the MFA, the league has the rights to use the brands of Maltese football clubs, meaning that the ePremier League is heavily focused on local teams with the players representing the local clubs.

“The licence that we have is the same level held by the English Premier League, the Italian Seria A, the German Bundesliga, and so on. It's quite a big competition,” he remarked.

Chircop explained that there are currently 14 players involved in the league, with each of them representing a Maltese Premier League club. He said that since the inception of the ePremier League, it has been a consistent requirement for every Premier League football club to have a representative in the BOV ePremier League Main Competition stage.

Bonnici said that the year begins with open qualifiers which provides all Maltese citizens, over the age of 16, with the opportunity to participate and compete for a spot in the last chance qualifier until the competition is ultimately narrowed down to the top 14 players.

He continued that the competition has seen significant improvement across various aspects including media exposure, level of competition, as well as the importance and prestige of winning the whole thing. “We initially began the event in the Malta Football Association’s museum, and now we have our own studio setup at the TVM premises, with matches broadcast live on TVM Sport+ every Friday at 9pm.”

Aside from the cash grand prize, Chircop explained that the winner of the ePremier League is then able to compete at an international level.

In a particularly exciting development for the local esports scene, he said that this will be the first year where the winner of the Malta BOV ePremier League will have a spot in the eChampions League, which is an esports tournament organised under the official Champions League brand.

Delving further into the details of this development, he said that the eCL generally takes place in the same area as the Champions League final. This means that for this year, the winner of the ePremier League will be going to England at the O1 Arena and competing against representatives of the remaining eight teams within the Champions League as well as the winners of the other licenced esports leagues around Europe.

According to EA Sports, the eCL is an especially successful esports event, with the event reaching over 4.3 million unique fans and seeing a 20% year-on-year increase in viewership in 2023.

The eCL will be taking place during next month, following the grand finals of the ePremier League, which were held last Friday. He added that the winner of the ePremier League then begins their journey in the FC Pro World Championship, which is a global competition adjacent to the European level.

Speaking about other esports competitions that the MFA is involved in, aside from the ePremier League, Bonnici said that the MFA also takes care of the eNational team and participates in various events hosted by UEFA and FIFA. “Last month we participated in the qualifiers of the eEuro taking place in Germany in summer, but narrowly missed out after finishing third in our Group,” he remarked.

Asked how important competitions such as the Malta BOV ePremier League are for the growth of the local esports scene, Chircop replied by saying that such events provide the local gaming community with a platform to elevate their passion to a professional level.

He further mentioned that in addition to the €10,000 prize pool, with €5,000 earmarked for the winner, the opportunity to participate in internationally-recognised competitions, offers local players the chance to “compete against top players worldwide for the esteemed title of number one in the world”.