Three Everton players will feature in Rovio Entertainment’s Angry Birds ‘Evolution’ game as the latest activation in the partnership between the developer and the Premier League club.
Gylfi Sigurdsson, Theo Walcott, Cenk Tosun have undergone an Angry Birds characterisation and will be available as playable characters in the Finnish developer’s game, which has been downloaded more than four billion times since launching in 2009.
The brand has served as Everton Football Club’s sleeve sponsor since 2017, its first partnership with a Premier League club, having previously run successful associations with the NFL and NBA. The club has said the brand is using the partnership and the international reach of the Premier League to consolidate its global audience.
Professor Denise Barrett-Baxendale, Everton Football Club chief executive, said: “Our innovative partnership with Angry Birds has enabled us to reach a new audience worldwide and gives us exposure in key international markets.
“The partnership from our perspective enables Everton to engage with a different audience on a global scale in the digital space.”
The activation appears to be consistent with Everton’s attempts to attract younger audiences more locally. The club recently told SportBusiness International how it had changed its ticket pricing policy to encourage junior and under-18 fans to its games.