The Bundesliga champions, Bayern Munich have announced an extension of its partnership with a video-game manufacturer, Konami.
Since 2019, the Tokyo-based corporation has been a platinum partner of the German football club. Konami is the developer of the video game series ‘eFootball,’ previously recognised as ‘Pro Evolution Soccer (PES).’
The partnership with the 31-time Bundesliga winners offers the series’ developers the necessary rights to obtain all of Bayern’s existing and legendary players. Bayern’s Esports team came second in this season’s eFootball Championship, having lost in the final to AS Monaco‘s Esports team.
The platinum partnership is the second tier of Bayern’s partnership model, trailing only the club’s main partners and shareholders. Other organisations on the platinum tier with Konami include Hylo, Paulaner, HVB, and Siemens.
Bayern Munich’s Board Member for Marketing, Andreas Jung, said, “The partnership with KONAMI is of great importance to us because this market is booming and is particularly popular with the young fans. We love football and this collaboration offers the ideal opportunity to play the game virtually with our fans around the world and connect everyone in this way. Konami translates as ‘small wave’ – and we have already been able to create a big wave together in the first years of our partnership. We want to continue surfing it. We are looking forward to the future.”
Naoki Morita, Konami’s European President, commented, “We are delighted to be extending our partnership with FC Bayern. Being a partner to one of Europe’s elite football clubs presents Konami and the club with many opportunities. To have been partners during a period where they have won multiple titles and become champions of Europe has been fantastic, and we cannot wait to continue to produce engaging and exciting activations with FC Bayern for their fans and ours for the years to come.”
Bayern has been working hard in recent years to increase their profile in Asia. Earlier this year, they also opened a new headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand. This new partnership with Konami could be another step in that direction.