Everton striker Wayne Rooney could be transformed into a virtual figure on an Angry Birds online game, as part of the club’s commercial dealings.
As per the Telegraph, Angry Birds developing company Rovio are trying to branch out beyond the digital app market and capture the attention of sports fans in order to expand their audience — which could mean that Everton-themed gaming could be on its way.
Ville Heijari, Rovio Entertainment’s chief marketing officer said:
We have a history of doing Angry Bird homages of real-life characters so obviously now we are in collaboration [with Everton] we can work together to bring interesting characters and profiles into the games
Potentially Wayne Rooney would be involved
Everton agreed a deal this summer to have Angry Birds as their shirt sleeve sponsor for the 2017-18 Premier League season, which is the first in which clubs have been allowed such commerical deals for their sleeves.
Everton’s Everton’s head of commercial, Alan McTavish, had the following to say:
For us this is a real plus in that we have been able to secure a brand of the level of Rovio with the level of brand awareness they have and the undoubted market-leading following they have
It [shirt sleeve sponsorship] has been a really competitive marketplace and there have been deals done across the league at different levels but we are confident we have done the best of them all
Other examples of Premier League clubs’ shirt sleeve sponsors include Burnley’s deal with Dafabet, Chelsea being sponsored on the sleeve by Alliance Tyres, Liverpool’s agreement with Western Union and Manchester City’s Nexen Tyre deal, whilst Southampton are carrying main kit sponsor Virgin Media on their sleeves as well.
