Will EA's Fifa Franchise Allow Gambling?

One of the biggest aspects to the Fifa Franchise is the fantastic Ultimate Team game mode which has kept millions of people entertained throughout the year. With the importance of Fifa Coins within the game and how many YouTubers play "wager matches" or "Pink Slips" will this ever become an option to the everyday Fifa player?

Many people will have seen popular YouTubers playing against one another, risking millions of Fifa Coins or top players in a singular 90 minute match and yet this option seems impossible for us regular players. The worst thing about this is many people try to exploit this, creating social media accounts which attempt to "scam" Fifa Coins and players off individuals. Not only that but should 2 people agree to partake in a wager/pinks slips match and they loose, without the proper guidance or mediation, nothing is ever handed over and the looser sucks face and shuts off their console. So with all this in mind, will EA ever allow this as an option?

Other popular games such as the Call of Duty franchise and Grand Theft Auto both have an option to gamble their version of currency in multi-player online games. However both of these franchises have obtained relevant licences and both have an age rating of 18+. Because of this EA would have to raise the games age rating to 18+ meaning many thousands if not millions of potential customers may be effected and unable to purchase the game.

So, because of this, the answer shall more than likely always be a no. You will not be able to gamble away your Fifa Coins or top players in the hopes of boosting your bankroll or your Ultimate Team. However, this doesn't mean the option to partake in wager/pink slip matches won't ever happen!

Should a reputable business come along which has a track record of being trustworthy within the industry create a website or an option, people may be able to partake in wager matches. It may mean the winner of the match has to go the extra mile to prove their victory or the delivery of the grand prize takes longer, but it would mean the option is there and many people will get involved. Of course with millions of Fifa Coins on the line or some of the best players in the game up for grabs, it does add another angle for potential con artists to exploit.

No EA won't allow this and here is why:

As of late FIFA has been trying to expand to new markets and appeal more to them (Inclusion of Saudi League in FIFA 13 and South American Leagues in 14 and rumored is more expansion in regards to Asian teams in FIFA 15) the South American market is easy to crack due to love of the sport and with consoles manufactures making them more accessible in said countries. However the Asian market is much harder, especially in regards to the Middle East and India...And here is where the problem lies.

Now I can't speak for all the Asian markets but from my experience with friends who work over in the Middle East especially, getting hold of a number of games can be a challenge due to rules on censorship. And the problem we have here is the idea of gambling...You may or not be aware that gambling is illegal within Islamic law and due to this markets being majority Muslim it will cause a huge problem for EA trying to crack this large market if there games are promoting gambling of any form.

Now of course all this is more of an observation and it may be the laws in such countries may be a little more slack then I am lead to believe but if what I say is true it could be a big headache and a possible huge loss for EA if these games were to be outlawed due to this feature. You could say that they could be excluded from copies shipped to the Islamic countries but again this could cause a large amount of logistics problems that could be avoided by simply not doing it.

So with that in mind I can imagine the gambling element of FIFA games will simply stay at the players discretion instead of promoted by the game overall.

@OhJayDubya: They could still make different versions...

It would be nice to see if they could do anything but I sadly don't think they will. Fantastic points @OhJayDubya and makes it more unlikely we will see this feature in the game. It may be something a 3rd party could do but again that requires an element of trust and if EA would allow this to happen. Many people would love to see the feature, there is a market there. It just depends if it's EA or someone else who will take advantage of this.

Or they could avoid spending time and money making a different version and just not have it.

They would make more money than they would spend you know