May 2, 2025 • 20 mins
On this episode of Her Playbook, Madelyn Burke sits down with Andrea Hopelain, Vice President of Publishing at EA Sports, to discuss how technology is changing the gaming world, the return of college sports games, and how gaming is helping to grow the world of sports.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to an all new episode of Her Playbook, brought
to you by Kendra Scott. Her Playbook is a podcast
highlighting inspiring stories of women in sport and business. My
name is Madeleine Burke and I'm thrilled to be joined
on this episode by Andrea Hopelane, the senior vice president
of Publishing at EA Sports. Andrea, thank you so much
for joining me today.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I see you're in your office. I mean I got
to say, we see the Mahomes jersey behind you. I
can't fault you for that. You know, he is a
pretty talented quarterback. But I got a shout out that
Giants helmet right above it, So thank you for that
little edition there.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
You're welcome. I'm a fan, but I am clearly a
fan of many things. But I'm happy to also be
a Giants.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Fan, absolutely a fan of many sports. I'm we're a
fan of you and being on this podcast. We got
asked starting off with what exactly does your role entail
as senior vice president of Publishing at EA Sports.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Gosh, I have one of the most fun jobs I
think I've ever had in my entire career. Today I
have the immense pleasure to oversee you really talented team
of leaders across our marketing, creative and commercial organizations. And
we're the team that partners deeply with our studios teams
to make sure that we are connecting our incredible games
(01:13):
and experiences with audience allas all around the world.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Now, prior to EA, you've spent time at Hasbro, at Disney,
at ESPN, at Sony, some really big companies, some household names,
and you've talked about in past interviews the importance of
working with brands that make real emotional connections with their audiences.
EA another company that really does that. Working at all
these companies, what do you think is the key to
(01:38):
making an emotional connection with an audience.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
You're right, I've had an incredible career journey and really
at the intersection of sports, entertainment, technology and with brands
that consumers absolutely fall in love with. You know, those
are all brands that have characters, they have stories, they
have athletes, they have worlds, they have pitches, they have
grid irons, and they have competition. And I think that,
(02:04):
you know, it's so fun to tap into consumer's passion
whatever it may be, and really learn how to listen
to what they love and lean in and deliver that.
And so I've really been at the heartbeat of consumer
fandom my entire career, and it's you know, my favorite
thing to do every day is to wake up and
listen to fans and figure out the ways in which
(02:25):
we can continue to delight them and continue to engage
them deeper and deeper into their fandom and connect them
with others around them.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Where did your journey as a sports fan start?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Quesh? You know, I think it started with my own
personal love for sports. I played soccer since probably I
was three years old, and really just always loved the
camaraderie of being a part of a team and having
a shared ambition and a shared goal, but not just
being able to use my body athletically, to be able
to use my voice and to be able to use
(02:56):
my brain to think about the different pathways to connect
to the end ambition and so just sort of that
physical play as well as you know, the mental the
mental agility that's required to be an athlete. I fell
in love through my own passion for playing sport, and
then you know, the world opened up to me as
I saw there were so many others like me, a
(03:17):
variety of levels that also love sport.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
We see those stats too so often that it's like,
you know, young women and young girls and even boys
and men as well who play team sports have a
higher success rate in you know, these corporate settings and
in you know, c suite jobs and in higher level
SVP roles and all that. What are some of the
things that you see that translate from sport to business
(03:41):
that really made that transition beneficial or some of the
early lessons that you learned that you thought, Okay, this
is helpful in this setting and going forward.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
You know, I hear we a lot of people talk
about grit, resilience, teamwork, camaraderie. I think all of those
things are things you learn in any sport, and if
you want to be competitive, you know, they're kind of
a requirement that you understand how all of those things
come together and that competitive spirit to be to win.
I think the thing that most resonates with me today
(04:12):
as I think about sport and what sport has taught
me and what I think it teaches it has taught
many of the people that I get to work with
every day, is that failure is absolutely a part of winning,
and I think about my own experience, you know, whether
on the pitch and you know, take take it like
having it be in that key moment of taking penalty shots,
(04:33):
you know, in a winning moment in a game, you know,
the moment that defines whether you win or you lose.
I think about the moments that I spent practicing for
those penalty kicks and how many I missed, and how
many the goalie is blocked, and what it takes to
just keep going and practice and practice, and that failure
(04:54):
is so much a part of the glory of winning.
And I come back to that very regularly. You know,
some times we lose that, we lose that resilience, we
lose that we come by. We somehow come into adulthood
and we have this fear of failure and all of
a sudden we have to show up and be perfect.
And I continue to go back to those moments of like,
remember what it was like to be an athlete. You know,
(05:15):
whether you're standing on the free throw line and you're practicing,
you know, trying to get the ball into the net,
you miss more than you get it in as you're learning.
And I think it's so important for anybody in any
corporate setting or any job setting to remember that trying
anything and being bold and wanting to win comes with
(05:35):
a lot of failure along the way.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I'm sure, and it's in any walk of life or
in any regard. It it's almost like you learn more
from the failures than you do from the successes exact,
and that's how growth comes. And you know, speaking of growth,
there has been a huge growth in the gaming world
in recent years. And you know, obviously sports fans love
(05:58):
to watch live sports, but as the consumer consumption of
things is getting more interactive, how have you and EA
kind of felt that shift into Okay, this gaming world
is becoming a whole another thing and almost a sport
in itself.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
It's a really fun moment to be where we are
right now. I think gaming, to your point, has never
been more relevant. But on top of it, sport fandom
is growing. It continues to grow and grow and grow.
We're not seeing any signs of stopping, which is pretty
cool because sport is timeless in my opinion. You know,
sport is truly It's been around since the dawn of time,
(06:38):
and I think it will persistent till the dawn of time.
But what's really cool about where we are in this
moment is we spent the better part of the last
four decades building out interactive capabilities that allow people to
play and engage and interact with sport, and we're sitting
in this really special position right now where technology is
advancing in ways that are really incredible. We've got an
(07:02):
audience that has grown up and that has grown up
playing our games, but also the next generation of audience
is growing up in a gaming first environment, and so
we really see incredible potential for you a sports to
continue to lead sports fandom forward. We're constantly looking for
new ways to reach the next generation of fans and
(07:23):
really transform the reach of our brand and experience into
not just gameplay, but really being the future funnel of
sports fandom.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah. Well, and the fact that not just only has
it grown so exponentially, but people look at sports sometimes
through a narrow lens of a male dominant field, just
as they look at gaming through a narrow lens of
sometimes a male dominant field. But what really has stood
up to me is the immense growth of women in
gaming and what a large percentage women make up of
that clientele.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Not only is there an an enormously dominant population of
women in this world who game. There's also an incredible
amount of women's who are athletes and sports fans as well.
For us, it's a really part of an important part
of how we serve our fans and how we grow
our audiences, and how we make sure that we show
up in the world as a leader in sport. You know,
(08:17):
we have to represent it all. We've taken a number
of strides over the last maybe five to seven years,
I would say to really, you know, be on the
front foot of how we represent equitably inside of our
games women women's sport, and even the mobility and the
agility of women's athletes inside of our game. And that
(08:38):
comes from the introduction of females inside of our game,
females as cover athletes. You know, We've done this across
a sports FC, our NHL game, in our Madden Game,
and our college football game. We have women female referees
and commentators. We're really really doing our best to represent
you know, the athletes around the world, is well as
(09:00):
the sport leaders around the world on and off the pitch,
inside of our experiences and as members of our team
that are incredible powerhouses in as creatives, as engineers, as technologists,
as you know, commercial leaders, and so you know, we're
acting the act, we're walking the walk, we're talking the talk.
(09:21):
But more than that, and I think one of the
things that people don't see is maybe a little bit
behind the curtain, is we're not just placing women in
our games and putting them on male skeletons. You know,
we're building engineering and skeleton capability for the fluidity of
the female form. As athletes, we run differently. You know,
(09:42):
there's a lot of the football the football kits fit
us differently, and so we've really overhauled the entire skeleton
and of our character motion inside of our games to
represent the female form.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
That is so fascinating and it's got to be, you know,
increasingly interesting to watch it come to life. I mean,
one of the things that I think is great is
that you know, you've got now NWSL teams that are
playable in FIFA, and as that league is really growing
and coming onto the scene such a huge way, what
was that process like integrating those teams into that game
(10:16):
and what was the reception, like, how how has that
unfolded from your perspective.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
It's been really incredible to see the reception for women
across all of our games, and it's been quite natural.
I was just looking at I was just looking at
some stats the other day and to see the amount
of players inside of our game that have equipped females
inside of their you know, eleven v eleven soccer teams
(10:43):
inside of the A Sports FC, the amount of the
amount of play that women are getting inside of our
NHL game. It's really astounding to see that more than
half of our players are equipping women, playing them regularly,
using them as utility players and leaders in driving their
(11:04):
you know, competitive play. So that's been really wonderful to see.
I think the other thing that's been really fun for
our partners at the leagues. You know, they come to
us and they're like, you know, our business is growing
because of the reach that EA Sports has. You know,
our athletes, our athletes are known, their names are known,
(11:24):
their stats are known, and we know that it is
because you know, EA Sports reaches over almost three hundred
million fans around the world. Your reach is so incredible
that our athletes, our leagues, our teams are more famous
than we could have made them on our own and
it's it's it's just such a wonderful celebration for us
(11:45):
of the role that we play in leading sport forward,
but also the role that we get to play at
at a at a micro level too with these athletes.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
I mean I can completely relate. I remember in college
in the dorms, playing feet and kind of that's how
I really learned the game of soccer. And and you know,
I mean, yes, you'd watch it casually, but playing the
game and getting to know the players and getting to
know their strengths and getting to know the rules and
the plays of a game on a different level. And
whether it's you know, a soccer game, whether it's Madden,
(12:18):
whether it's college football, which is back the EA college
football game. That is a huge one too. And we
got to talk about that because I know sports fans
and gamers alike were celebrating when this news came out
that this game was returning. Obviously, you know, it got
shelved for a period of time because of NIL. But
(12:39):
now that you've got NIL in the mix, you're able
to get college athletes to opt in and to get
their name, image and actual likeness in the game. What
was that process like building out that game, relaunching that
game to a huge fanfare.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
My gosh, it was such a phenomenal first year for
us returning back to college football after more than a
decade out of the market. I don't think we could
have been received more positively from fans, from partners, from
the community, and even the athletes. I mean, it was
so far beyond our expectations and just such a love
(13:17):
letter to college football fans around the world. It was
an incredibly exciting project, not only the debut to all
of our fans around the world, but also for the
teams inside of BA that had the opportunity to work
on that. That was really powerful. I think that to
your point on NL, I think that was a big deal.
You know, being able to bring more than eleven thousand
(13:40):
athletes into the game. We executed the largest single sport
NIL deal ever last year, and you know, really rooted
it in a focus of driving inclusivity. You know, we
wanted every athlete to have the opportunity to be inside
of our game. We wanted to drive like fair and
(14:02):
equittle compensation for all of the athletes. And you know,
we're going to continue to drive this program forward you know,
and continue to be in the college football business. I
think the other if I had one more thing to
say about it that was really special, was it was
different a decade later for us launching this game and
(14:23):
coming back into the market, And that difference was that
all of the athletes that are now inside of our
game grew up playing EA Sports. So for them, you know,
as a generation of gamers growing up to see themselves
and be able to play themselves inside a thing of
(14:44):
a game and an ecosystem that they had done for
years growing up, it was just it made it that
much more powerful for us to celebrate with them.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah. Now, speaking of growing up playing EA, I know
you have a young son who you play games with.
This is the way that you two bond. How have
you watched and how is seeing you know, this product
that you produced through his eyes affected the way that
you approach it on your day to day.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
It is incredible. First of all, it is incredible how
how much Dexterity the next generation or this young generation
has versus me. You know, his ability and his fluidity
and gameplay is on any screen is just second to nine.
So that's incredible to watch and I get my butt
kicked pretty regularly by my nine year old. But I
(15:37):
think more importantly, it's just it's fun to truly watch
how social gaming is for him and how much, you know,
it's a part of his connection to friends, it's a
part of his connection to his fandom, it's a part
of how he learned about the rules of sport. I mean,
we've spent countless hours playing either Madden or college football
(15:57):
this year because he's obsessed football now and he wants
to understand all the rules, all the plays. And you know,
whether we're watching the forty nine ers games, or we're
playing college football, or he's out playing flag football right now,
it just sort of all comes together and you know,
he's like, oh, mom, that's the play that we played
in Madden, and you know that's what you know, this
(16:21):
is what the cornerback does. And he understands plays, playbooks, teams,
formations and all of that through our games, which makes
him a more ardent fan and a more you know,
a more avid athlete as he's participating in the real
world as well.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah, it is such a fascinating it's almost like an
interactive film study for the younger generation.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I try not to like do the mesearch right, you know,
like my end of one inside of my house. But
I am pretty clear that my story is similar to
many others who have you. It's it is a story
of youth today.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Yeah, a lot of people watching or listening to this
conversation might think, Wow, that is such a cool job.
How do I get a job like Andrea has? What
is one piece of advice that you would give to
the younger generation or to people watching or listening who say,
you know, this is a path I'd want to pursue,
Because I'm sure you get this question a lot. How
(17:21):
do I get there?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I would say maybe there's two things. One is one
is to to really to really believe in yourself. I
think that you have to have a lot of confident.
You have to like be curious, You have to be confident,
and you have to be candid. Right, those are all
the things that like candid about what you know, candidate
about what you don't know you know, curious to learn,
(17:44):
and confident that you're someone who could step into something
and figure it out. Related to that is that I
think you have to say yes to the things that
you don't know how to do. And I think That's
been a very consistent thread throughout my career journey is
that I've stepped into roles that I knew I really
(18:04):
didn't know what I was doing right out of the gate,
and you know, those three ce's, the confidence, the candor
the curiosity have been what's helped me sort through it.
But always sort of stepping into something that makes you
a little bit uncomfortable has really been an unlock for
me into progressing my career and taking on more meaningful journeys.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
I do love that advice because I think that that
growth point comes from those moments where you are a
little bit uncomfortable and you are a little bit out
of your comfort zone. But how do you maintain that
confidence that first see when you feel so in over
your head in an area where you're not as familiar it.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
I don't think that you ever get comfortable in it,
and I don't think that you ever feel You always
feel a little unsteady in those moments. And I think
that for me, it's been finding a way to have
comfort in the mess, comfort in my own discomfort because
(19:04):
I now I'm seasoned enough to know that it passes
and you find your way and all of a sudden
things click and you have these aha moments you're like,
I got this, I got this. But you know, being
you know, uncomfortable in the mass of learning and surrounding
yourself with people around you that you can vulnerably ask
(19:25):
questions and show the things you don't know. That not
only endears you to others as someone who has a
learning mindset and you know, but also it allows them
to want to help you.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, that is some great advice. Andrew Hopelane, thank you
so much for taking the time to talk with us
today on her playbook, brought to you by Kendra Scott.
Really appreciate it. Andrea Hopelane, the Senior vice president of
Publishing at EA Sports. Her playbook is brought to you
by Kendra Scott, the jewelry company that's shining bright and
doing good. Shop jewelry styles designed for every day and
(19:59):
every occasion in at your local Kendrascott store or at
Kendrascott dot com.
Welcome to an all new episode of Her Playbook, brought
to you by Kendra Scott. Her Playbook is a podcast
highlighting inspiring stories of women in sport and business. My
name is Madeleine Burke and I'm thrilled to be joined
on this episode by Andrea Hopelane, the senior vice president
of Publishing at EA Sports. Andrea, thank you so much
for joining me today.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I see you're in your office. I mean I got
to say, we see the Mahomes jersey behind you. I
can't fault you for that. You know, he is a
pretty talented quarterback. But I got a shout out that
Giants helmet right above it, So thank you for that
little edition there.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
You're welcome. I'm a fan, but I am clearly a
fan of many things. But I'm happy to also be
a Giants.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Fan, absolutely a fan of many sports. I'm we're a
fan of you and being on this podcast. We got
asked starting off with what exactly does your role entail
as senior vice president of Publishing at EA Sports.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Gosh, I have one of the most fun jobs I
think I've ever had in my entire career. Today I
have the immense pleasure to oversee you really talented team
of leaders across our marketing, creative and commercial organizations. And
we're the team that partners deeply with our studios teams
to make sure that we are connecting our incredible games
(01:13):
and experiences with audience allas all around the world.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Now, prior to EA, you've spent time at Hasbro, at Disney,
at ESPN, at Sony, some really big companies, some household names,
and you've talked about in past interviews the importance of
working with brands that make real emotional connections with their audiences.
EA another company that really does that. Working at all
these companies, what do you think is the key to
(01:38):
making an emotional connection with an audience.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
You're right, I've had an incredible career journey and really
at the intersection of sports, entertainment, technology and with brands
that consumers absolutely fall in love with. You know, those
are all brands that have characters, they have stories, they
have athletes, they have worlds, they have pitches, they have
grid irons, and they have competition. And I think that,
(02:04):
you know, it's so fun to tap into consumer's passion
whatever it may be, and really learn how to listen
to what they love and lean in and deliver that.
And so I've really been at the heartbeat of consumer
fandom my entire career, and it's you know, my favorite
thing to do every day is to wake up and
listen to fans and figure out the ways in which
(02:25):
we can continue to delight them and continue to engage
them deeper and deeper into their fandom and connect them
with others around them.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Where did your journey as a sports fan start?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Quesh? You know, I think it started with my own
personal love for sports. I played soccer since probably I
was three years old, and really just always loved the
camaraderie of being a part of a team and having
a shared ambition and a shared goal, but not just
being able to use my body athletically, to be able
to use my voice and to be able to use
(02:56):
my brain to think about the different pathways to connect
to the end ambition and so just sort of that
physical play as well as you know, the mental the
mental agility that's required to be an athlete. I fell
in love through my own passion for playing sport, and
then you know, the world opened up to me as
I saw there were so many others like me, a
(03:17):
variety of levels that also love sport.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
We see those stats too so often that it's like,
you know, young women and young girls and even boys
and men as well who play team sports have a
higher success rate in you know, these corporate settings and
in you know, c suite jobs and in higher level
SVP roles and all that. What are some of the
things that you see that translate from sport to business
(03:41):
that really made that transition beneficial or some of the
early lessons that you learned that you thought, Okay, this
is helpful in this setting and going forward.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
You know, I hear we a lot of people talk
about grit, resilience, teamwork, camaraderie. I think all of those
things are things you learn in any sport, and if
you want to be competitive, you know, they're kind of
a requirement that you understand how all of those things
come together and that competitive spirit to be to win.
I think the thing that most resonates with me today
(04:12):
as I think about sport and what sport has taught
me and what I think it teaches it has taught
many of the people that I get to work with
every day, is that failure is absolutely a part of winning,
and I think about my own experience, you know, whether
on the pitch and you know, take take it like
having it be in that key moment of taking penalty shots,
(04:33):
you know, in a winning moment in a game, you know,
the moment that defines whether you win or you lose.
I think about the moments that I spent practicing for
those penalty kicks and how many I missed, and how
many the goalie is blocked, and what it takes to
just keep going and practice and practice, and that failure
(04:54):
is so much a part of the glory of winning.
And I come back to that very regularly. You know,
some times we lose that, we lose that resilience, we
lose that we come by. We somehow come into adulthood
and we have this fear of failure and all of
a sudden we have to show up and be perfect.
And I continue to go back to those moments of like,
remember what it was like to be an athlete. You know,
(05:15):
whether you're standing on the free throw line and you're practicing,
you know, trying to get the ball into the net,
you miss more than you get it in as you're learning.
And I think it's so important for anybody in any
corporate setting or any job setting to remember that trying
anything and being bold and wanting to win comes with
(05:35):
a lot of failure along the way.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I'm sure, and it's in any walk of life or
in any regard. It it's almost like you learn more
from the failures than you do from the successes exact,
and that's how growth comes. And you know, speaking of growth,
there has been a huge growth in the gaming world
in recent years. And you know, obviously sports fans love
(05:58):
to watch live sports, but as the consumer consumption of
things is getting more interactive, how have you and EA
kind of felt that shift into Okay, this gaming world
is becoming a whole another thing and almost a sport
in itself.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
It's a really fun moment to be where we are
right now. I think gaming, to your point, has never
been more relevant. But on top of it, sport fandom
is growing. It continues to grow and grow and grow.
We're not seeing any signs of stopping, which is pretty
cool because sport is timeless in my opinion. You know,
sport is truly It's been around since the dawn of time,
(06:38):
and I think it will persistent till the dawn of time.
But what's really cool about where we are in this
moment is we spent the better part of the last
four decades building out interactive capabilities that allow people to
play and engage and interact with sport, and we're sitting
in this really special position right now where technology is
advancing in ways that are really incredible. We've got an
(07:02):
audience that has grown up and that has grown up
playing our games, but also the next generation of audience
is growing up in a gaming first environment, and so
we really see incredible potential for you a sports to
continue to lead sports fandom forward. We're constantly looking for
new ways to reach the next generation of fans and
(07:23):
really transform the reach of our brand and experience into
not just gameplay, but really being the future funnel of
sports fandom.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah. Well, and the fact that not just only has
it grown so exponentially, but people look at sports sometimes
through a narrow lens of a male dominant field, just
as they look at gaming through a narrow lens of
sometimes a male dominant field. But what really has stood
up to me is the immense growth of women in
gaming and what a large percentage women make up of
that clientele.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Not only is there an an enormously dominant population of
women in this world who game. There's also an incredible
amount of women's who are athletes and sports fans as well.
For us, it's a really part of an important part
of how we serve our fans and how we grow
our audiences, and how we make sure that we show
up in the world as a leader in sport. You know,
(08:17):
we have to represent it all. We've taken a number
of strides over the last maybe five to seven years,
I would say to really, you know, be on the
front foot of how we represent equitably inside of our
games women women's sport, and even the mobility and the
agility of women's athletes inside of our game. And that
(08:38):
comes from the introduction of females inside of our game,
females as cover athletes. You know, We've done this across
a sports FC, our NHL game, in our Madden Game,
and our college football game. We have women female referees
and commentators. We're really really doing our best to represent
you know, the athletes around the world, is well as
(09:00):
the sport leaders around the world on and off the pitch,
inside of our experiences and as members of our team
that are incredible powerhouses in as creatives, as engineers, as technologists,
as you know, commercial leaders, and so you know, we're
acting the act, we're walking the walk, we're talking the talk.
(09:21):
But more than that, and I think one of the
things that people don't see is maybe a little bit
behind the curtain, is we're not just placing women in
our games and putting them on male skeletons. You know,
we're building engineering and skeleton capability for the fluidity of
the female form. As athletes, we run differently. You know,
(09:42):
there's a lot of the football the football kits fit
us differently, and so we've really overhauled the entire skeleton
and of our character motion inside of our games to
represent the female form.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
That is so fascinating and it's got to be, you know,
increasingly interesting to watch it come to life. I mean,
one of the things that I think is great is
that you know, you've got now NWSL teams that are
playable in FIFA, and as that league is really growing
and coming onto the scene such a huge way, what
was that process like integrating those teams into that game
(10:16):
and what was the reception, like, how how has that
unfolded from your perspective.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
It's been really incredible to see the reception for women
across all of our games, and it's been quite natural.
I was just looking at I was just looking at
some stats the other day and to see the amount
of players inside of our game that have equipped females
inside of their you know, eleven v eleven soccer teams
(10:43):
inside of the A Sports FC, the amount of the
amount of play that women are getting inside of our
NHL game. It's really astounding to see that more than
half of our players are equipping women, playing them regularly,
using them as utility players and leaders in driving their
(11:04):
you know, competitive play. So that's been really wonderful to see.
I think the other thing that's been really fun for
our partners at the leagues. You know, they come to
us and they're like, you know, our business is growing
because of the reach that EA Sports has. You know,
our athletes, our athletes are known, their names are known,
(11:24):
their stats are known, and we know that it is
because you know, EA Sports reaches over almost three hundred
million fans around the world. Your reach is so incredible
that our athletes, our leagues, our teams are more famous
than we could have made them on our own and
it's it's it's just such a wonderful celebration for us
(11:45):
of the role that we play in leading sport forward,
but also the role that we get to play at
at a at a micro level too with these athletes.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
I mean I can completely relate. I remember in college
in the dorms, playing feet and kind of that's how
I really learned the game of soccer. And and you know,
I mean, yes, you'd watch it casually, but playing the
game and getting to know the players and getting to
know their strengths and getting to know the rules and
the plays of a game on a different level. And
whether it's you know, a soccer game, whether it's Madden,
(12:18):
whether it's college football, which is back the EA college
football game. That is a huge one too. And we
got to talk about that because I know sports fans
and gamers alike were celebrating when this news came out
that this game was returning. Obviously, you know, it got
shelved for a period of time because of NIL. But
(12:39):
now that you've got NIL in the mix, you're able
to get college athletes to opt in and to get
their name, image and actual likeness in the game. What
was that process like building out that game, relaunching that
game to a huge fanfare.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
My gosh, it was such a phenomenal first year for
us returning back to college football after more than a
decade out of the market. I don't think we could
have been received more positively from fans, from partners, from
the community, and even the athletes. I mean, it was
so far beyond our expectations and just such a love
(13:17):
letter to college football fans around the world. It was
an incredibly exciting project, not only the debut to all
of our fans around the world, but also for the
teams inside of BA that had the opportunity to work
on that. That was really powerful. I think that to
your point on NL, I think that was a big deal.
You know, being able to bring more than eleven thousand
(13:40):
athletes into the game. We executed the largest single sport
NIL deal ever last year, and you know, really rooted
it in a focus of driving inclusivity. You know, we
wanted every athlete to have the opportunity to be inside
of our game. We wanted to drive like fair and
(14:02):
equittle compensation for all of the athletes. And you know,
we're going to continue to drive this program forward you know,
and continue to be in the college football business. I
think the other if I had one more thing to
say about it that was really special, was it was
different a decade later for us launching this game and
(14:23):
coming back into the market, And that difference was that
all of the athletes that are now inside of our
game grew up playing EA Sports. So for them, you know,
as a generation of gamers growing up to see themselves
and be able to play themselves inside a thing of
(14:44):
a game and an ecosystem that they had done for
years growing up, it was just it made it that
much more powerful for us to celebrate with them.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah. Now, speaking of growing up playing EA, I know
you have a young son who you play games with.
This is the way that you two bond. How have
you watched and how is seeing you know, this product
that you produced through his eyes affected the way that
you approach it on your day to day.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
It is incredible. First of all, it is incredible how
how much Dexterity the next generation or this young generation
has versus me. You know, his ability and his fluidity
and gameplay is on any screen is just second to nine.
So that's incredible to watch and I get my butt
kicked pretty regularly by my nine year old. But I
(15:37):
think more importantly, it's just it's fun to truly watch
how social gaming is for him and how much, you know,
it's a part of his connection to friends, it's a
part of his connection to his fandom, it's a part
of how he learned about the rules of sport. I mean,
we've spent countless hours playing either Madden or college football
(15:57):
this year because he's obsessed football now and he wants
to understand all the rules, all the plays. And you know,
whether we're watching the forty nine ers games, or we're
playing college football, or he's out playing flag football right now,
it just sort of all comes together and you know,
he's like, oh, mom, that's the play that we played
in Madden, and you know that's what you know, this
(16:21):
is what the cornerback does. And he understands plays, playbooks, teams,
formations and all of that through our games, which makes
him a more ardent fan and a more you know,
a more avid athlete as he's participating in the real
world as well.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah, it is such a fascinating it's almost like an
interactive film study for the younger generation.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I try not to like do the mesearch right, you know,
like my end of one inside of my house. But
I am pretty clear that my story is similar to
many others who have you. It's it is a story
of youth today.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Yeah, a lot of people watching or listening to this
conversation might think, Wow, that is such a cool job.
How do I get a job like Andrea has? What
is one piece of advice that you would give to
the younger generation or to people watching or listening who say,
you know, this is a path I'd want to pursue,
Because I'm sure you get this question a lot. How
(17:21):
do I get there?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I would say maybe there's two things. One is one
is to to really to really believe in yourself. I
think that you have to have a lot of confident.
You have to like be curious, You have to be confident,
and you have to be candid. Right, those are all
the things that like candid about what you know, candidate
about what you don't know you know, curious to learn,
(17:44):
and confident that you're someone who could step into something
and figure it out. Related to that is that I
think you have to say yes to the things that
you don't know how to do. And I think That's
been a very consistent thread throughout my career journey is
that I've stepped into roles that I knew I really
(18:04):
didn't know what I was doing right out of the gate,
and you know, those three ce's, the confidence, the candor
the curiosity have been what's helped me sort through it.
But always sort of stepping into something that makes you
a little bit uncomfortable has really been an unlock for
me into progressing my career and taking on more meaningful journeys.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
I do love that advice because I think that that
growth point comes from those moments where you are a
little bit uncomfortable and you are a little bit out
of your comfort zone. But how do you maintain that
confidence that first see when you feel so in over
your head in an area where you're not as familiar it.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
I don't think that you ever get comfortable in it,
and I don't think that you ever feel You always
feel a little unsteady in those moments. And I think
that for me, it's been finding a way to have
comfort in the mess, comfort in my own discomfort because
(19:04):
I now I'm seasoned enough to know that it passes
and you find your way and all of a sudden
things click and you have these aha moments you're like,
I got this, I got this. But you know, being
you know, uncomfortable in the mass of learning and surrounding
yourself with people around you that you can vulnerably ask
(19:25):
questions and show the things you don't know. That not
only endears you to others as someone who has a
learning mindset and you know, but also it allows them
to want to help you.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, that is some great advice. Andrew Hopelane, thank you
so much for taking the time to talk with us
today on her playbook, brought to you by Kendra Scott.
Really appreciate it. Andrea Hopelane, the Senior vice president of
Publishing at EA Sports. Her playbook is brought to you
by Kendra Scott, the jewelry company that's shining bright and
doing good. Shop jewelry styles designed for every day and
(19:59):
every occasion in at your local Kendrascott store or at
Kendrascott dot com.
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