Adebayo Akinfenwa to appear at HYPD Gaming's Fifa 19 event at Westfield shopping centre in Stratford
Published: 00:01, 08 November 2018
Updated: 07:45, 08 November 2018
Footballer Adebayo Akinfenwa will be attending a Fifa 19 event organised by a group video gamers.
Arranged by HYPD Gaming, based at John Wilson Business Park in Whitstable, it will be taking place this Saturday and Sunday at Westfield shopping centre in Stratford.
It will give passers-by the chance to play Fifa and watch others doing the same.
James Hunt, who runs HYPD Gaming, said: “It will have a cinema-type arena where people can sit and watch games and we’ll have a spinning wheel where people can win prizes.
“We’ve hired Akinfenwa and a couple of YouTubers who have two or three million subscribers each to come in and play Fifa.”
Akinfenwa – who plays for Wycombe Wanderers and is best known as “the Beast” – is famed for being one of the strongest players in Fifa.
Members of the crowd, which is expected to consist of as many as 10,000 people, will be selected to play against the star.
Mr Hunt hopes the event, called Get HYPD, will be the first of many more for the company.
“It’s to raise our profile and show potential sponsors what kind of events we want to put on over the year,” he explained.
“It’s our first large-scale event. We’ll invite major sporting brands so they can see what we want to do and be convinced to sponsor the next one.”
Mr Hunt, 28, has previously stated that he wants HYPD Gaming to turn over £500,000 over the next 12 months.
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Jack Dyson