why are charity events focusing more and more on gamers?

PSG highlights its esports athletes for a charity initiative against polio at the Eiffel Tower. With the director of the PSG brand, Fabien Allègre.

We are in the middle of a telethon and gamers have been taking part for several years now. Today we are interested in these charity live shows, because there are more and more of them with Laure Valée, franceinfo esports consultant.

franceinfo: What is it specifically about?

Laure Valée: Yes, you surely know the “Zevent”, this very popular video game marathon, which raises millions of euros each year, for a good cause. It became an institution and made many understand that video games were a way to mobilize communities. We can also cite SpeeDons, created by the streamer MisterMV, this gaming telethon, and many others. It is an effective lever for mobilizing young people, who do not necessarily watch television, but who can be captured on other media. And we see that this youth is generous.

Proof that this is an underlying trend, is it PSG which this week mobilized its esports athletes?

Yes, PSG has football, handball, judo, but also an esports section. And he organized last Tuesday, at the Eiffel Tower, a charity operation, with his players, on the EA sports FC24 game, better known as FIFA. An operation to defeat polio. Disease which affects the nervous system, and which we are close to eradicating globally. We are in the home stretch.

This is why PSG has partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Football players from the club were there, the players left a video of support, just like Emmanuel Macron. And involving esports athletes made perfect sense, according to Fabien Allègre, the director of the PSG brand:

“As a club of the new generation, it is important to raise awareness among our audience on subjects which are forgotten, and which are not necessarily a priority, given the global environment in which we are today. (… ) The fact of sending messages through young professional players, who address their audiences very regularly, with a certain expression, we are perhaps more in tune with our desire to deliver this message to an audience ever more important.”

The logic, Laure Valée is therefore the same for the gaming telethon at the moment?

Yes, this year it’s 50 hours of streaming, of broadcasting on the Internet, from yesterday and until tomorrow. 50 personalities are mobilized for video game games of course, but also debates and testimonies from young patients. The inclusive nature of video games will once again be highlighted. Around fifty Internet personalities are involved, but anyone can also launch a “solidarity stream” on Twitch to collect donations for the Telethon. So it’s up to you play !