Liverpool CEO explains why Fortnite is now as big a rival as Everton | OneFootball

Liverpool CEO Peter Moore believes the football landscape has changed and they now have to worry about competing with more than just other clubs.

In the past, the Reds faced competition from the likes of Everton and Manchester United when it came to attracting new fans.

But nowadays, Moore says they also have to offer young people something they can’t get just from sitting at home and playing multiplayer video games like Fortnite.

“The next generation [of fans] is going to be playing Fortnite, or Apex Legends, and is he even going to get out of his bedroom? That is the challenge we face,” Moore told the SXSW conference in Texas.

“The only way to meet that challenge is go and get them. I am loath to say go into the bedroom and find them, but you have to. You’ve got to talk to them like they are used to being spoken to.”

Before joining Liverpool, Moore spent 10 years as head of EA Sports and was previously vice-president of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment business.

So he knows what he’s talking about.

“The ability for me to bring my experience, particularly in the last 20 years being in tech, has allowed me to bring that to bear against the needs and challenges of what traditional sports need to do to embrace this new generation,” he added.

“A lot of gamers are coming through who are expecting the gaming experience. They don’t actually like to sit in the living room any more or don’t actually go to the game with their dads.”

“My dad took me to Anfield in 1959. I was four years of age. But my son may be the last generation in the Moore family that organically became a Liverpool fan because of me.

“If they are not going to do that then we have to go get them and build platforms they find relatable and literally talk to them like we are a video game.

“It is not happening organically any more – that rite of passage, I think, is finished with this generation.”

Liverpool are planning to install 360-degree cameras at Anfield in future to give younger fans a view of the match similar to what they’re used seeing in games such as the Fifa series, as well as a new mobile app.

“It is on me as a CEO of a global football club to think about new ways we can continue to engage them otherwise we are going to lose generation after generation,” added Moore.

“You either evolve or die.”