Gaming
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How Spencer FC became an eSports pioneer
Spencer FC is helping to blur the lines between eSports professionals and real world sports
Spencer Owen – aka Spencer FC – embarked on his YouTube journey in 2008. What started as a bit of fun quickly turned into a lucrative career that’s earned him millions of devoted subscribers.
A picture of Spencer FC
© Spencer FC
However, Spencer FC isn't just about making football videos. The Londoner is currently pioneering a bold change in real-life football too.
We sat down with Spencer ahead of his appearance at Legends of Gamning Live and talked YouTube, his influence on Premier League clubs and much more.
Tell us how Spencer FC started…
I started on YouTube in 2008 and I was doing it quite sporadically. I was at University at the time, so I wasn’t uploading a lot. I didn’t really understand YouTube as a business or that you could make money from it.
I had a few jobs after University in the same sort of space, learnt about YouTube and saw what other YouTubers were up to. It inspired me to kick on.
A picture of Spencer FC and Juan Mata
© [unknown]
You now have over 1.5m subscribers, how does it feel to have come so far?
I’ve been doing it full-time for three years now and it’s good – really cool. I get some amazing opportunities and travel all over the place. I have a lot of gaming influence in there, as I’ve grown up playing them, but football is the main thing on my channel – it’s what pulls it all together.
It was FIFA that really gave me my big break
The channel features me playing FIFA and Football Manager or real football or even going to watch West Ham games – I also went to the Euro 2016 too. As a football fan it’s a dream. It was FIFA that really gave me my big break and allowed me to do all this other amazing stuff too.
Your two passions are crossing paths a lot these days, what with Premier League clubs signing eSports players…
Yeah, I helped set that up through my show The Game Academy. It was a bit like The Apprentice as I searched for a new FIFA eSports player for my team, Hashtag United. Harry Hesketh won, but the runner-up, Kieran Brown was picked up by Manchester City and became the first eSports player to sign for a Premier League club.
It was important to me that clubs signed eSports players because I could see that’s where it was going [in the future].
You were pivotal in this historic moment – how did it happen?
I’m quite friendly with West Ham United and do a lot of stuff for them, and I also know Man City well too. I talked to them about signing an eSports player and convinced West Ham to sign Sean Allen, a player I know well and who was the runner-up at the FIFA Interactive World Cup in New York.
Man City were looking at a number of players and went with Kieran. So West Ham and Man City join Wolfsburg and FC Schalke with eSports players. And with Valencia, Manchester United and possibly Arsenal all on the lookout the future’s bright for all that now.
Sean and Kieran will go to tournaments like Gfinity or ESL and wear their team’s kit, but do you think games will eventually become like regular Premier League fixtures?
Definitely. City and West Ham have given their players squad numbers, so they’re technically part of the team. They’re obviously never going to play real football for them, but it’s still part of the match day experience.
A picture of Spencer FC and Gareth Bale
© Spencer FC
So how else will the eSports player represent their club?
They might have a FIFA stand before the game where fans can play and win prizes like free tickets or compete in challenges. The eSports pros can also do things with the club’s football players like team up for content on their channel, which some already do. There’s a lot they can do together.
It’s [signing eSport players] is just a good strategy. West Ham jumped on it and the PR value alone is incredible because everyone is talking about them and the deal. It’s also a really good way to engage with younger fans.
And what about the future?
Well, this is just the start. There are friendlies with a £500 prize, but if you look at where eSports is going and see how big FIFA is and how much support there is for football, if you can get that audience on side with eSports then the possibilities are endless.
Switching lanes for a second, how do you feel games like FIFA impact the young football fans of today?
I met a Serbian kid in Munich who was there to support Arsenal in their Champions League tie against Bayern. I asked how he ended up supporting Arsenal thinking it must be his parental influence, but he said ‘I chose them because they’re alphabetically first on FIFA’!
That’s how he chose the team he supports - through FIFA. He was still a proper fan and loves the football team. He follows them all around Europe and it was FIFA that started it all. It shows you how prevalent FIFA is now.
What sort of impact do you think FIFA has on football fandom in general?
Well, I’m a modern football fan. I’ve got no issues with traditions and the old school fans – I love all that – but times are changing. Fans of my age and younger can engage with football in so many ways that the older crowd couldn’t.
What's it like to be part of the real-life football industry?
It’s interesting, I hosted the West Ham kit launch recently, which is really cool as a fan. But you have to be quite thick-skinned with traditional fans as there were some who were saying ‘who’s this guy’?
I’ve never liked the term ‘YouTuber’. Not that I have any problem saying I’m a YouTuber, but people think it’s a catch all term. We all use it as a platform to make videos and that's it. All these guys here <gestures to pictures of YouTubers> they’re all great, I get on with them, but we don't all do the same thing.
What do you think it’ll take for football clubs and mainstream media to take eSports and YouTubers more seriously?
Whether it’s football or anything else there’s a pattern it all follows. The big guys don’t do anything until it starts hurting their pockets, but it will happen eventually.
One of the heads of the Premier League was asked in an interview what he thought their biggest competition was – the Bundesliga, La Liga Serie A etc – and he said “No, YouTube”. He was worried that young people weren’t going to watch football anymore. So clubs are aware of its power and the football world will come around to it eventually.
In my experience, young gamers don’t really watch TV – they’re watching YouTube and people need to understand why it’s so successful.
West Ham have been really good at giving YouTubers and other gaming related people opportunities, but they get a lot of stick for it. They got praise too, but some people just don’t understand it. There’s a reason West Ham, Man City and others have eSports players and there’s something more coming [with the association].
But there are people that hear West Ham United have signed an eSports player and they become critical for no reason. This happens when you’re an early adopter of something, people will eventually see what West Ham and Man City are doing with eSports.
Finally, do you think a traditional TV show format could ever work for eSports, or will it stay online?
It certainly could, but it’d have to contain the elements that people want to see. I grew up with an ambition to work in TV and football in some way as that’s what I wanted to do.
I’m still interested in these things – and certainly not closing any doors – but at the same time, I’m completely fine with staying on this platform [YouTube] because I know the power and the potential of it.
I don’t go flick through TV channels like I used to, but I’ll still record stuff or watch shows on demand. There are lessons to be learned from all of it.
Spencer will be playing Fifa 17 at Legends of Gaming Live at Alexandra Palace on 10 and 11 of September. Legends of Gaming Live is Britain's biggest YouTube gaming event, where top YouTubers will be competing against each other live on stage.
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