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21,000 spectators flocked to the EE-sponsored Wembley Cup on Friday night to watch some of the UK’s top football stars go head-to-head at the live final of this year’s YouTube series. FIFA YouTuber Spencer Owen’s team – aided by EA SPORTS FIFA Legends Robert Pires, Patrick Kluivert and Jamie Carragher – took the trophy with a 7-4 triumph over fellow YouTube side, the Weller Wanderers.
Last year Poke London created the inaugural online web series, The Wembley Cup, as a content and distribution concept to reach the massive, hugely engaged YouTube community. The eight-part multichannel video series documented the journeys of Spencer Owen (Spencer FC) and fellow YouTuber Joe Weller as they battled it out to each build a team strong enough to take the title. In the episodes, they both compete in a series of physical challenges to win the dream team to take part in the grand final.
This year was the first time fans were able to buy tickets to the live final at England’s national stadium and EE tech enabled interactivity as viewers were able to shape the teams on the day and call the shots through live social media polls during the match.
The final was also streamed live over EE’s 4G network for the first time, so that fans unable to attend could tune in and enjoy the full 90 minutes of play. The live streams clocked up nearly 300k simultaneous viewers at its peak on Friday night and has already had 3.1million views.
"Despite the full time score being 7-4 to Spencer FC it was a win-win for everyone involved," said Nick Farnhill, CEO & co-founder of Poke. "The fans, the brand, the players, Wembley and the FA all equally shared in the positive value this unique and ambitious collaboration generated."
Match highlights will feature in the final episode of the eight-part online series, available on Spencer FC’s YouTube channel and via the EE website.
