Could a Fifa esporter be coming to a League Two club near you?

The average attendance in League Two this season is fewer than 5,000 people, but at the last FUT Champions Cup event in Barcelona in January – part of Fifa’s Global Series, external that finishes with its flagship individual competition, the Fifa eWorld Cup – figures hit 160,000 concurrent online viewers.

Buckley says Championship outfit Wolverhampton Wanderers could be the next English club to take the leap into the virtual world, while the idea is also gathering speed lower down the Football League.

The pair highlight the examples of Danish side Brondby IF and VFL Bochum of the German second-tier as to how esports success can prove a PR goldmine.

“A lot of English teams are looking at it and thinking it could be really good exposure on a global scale,” says Buckley, who first teamed up with university classmate Smith last year.

“An American soccer fan isn’t going to look at a League Two club. But, take Brondby last year, no-one had really heard of them before but they had one of the best Fifa players in the world and people began recognising Brondby because of that.”

Smith, who earned his break after months of commentating on esports from his bedroom, adds: “German player MegaBit [Michael Bittner] was tearing up online qualification for the last event in Barcelona, and that man has given Bochum some fantastic press.”

At the minute, many of the top UK-based Fifa players are representing the big hitters on the social media spectrum, such as Hashtag United or UNILAD.

For companies such as UNILAD, an involvement in esports hits the right notes with their young, social-savvy digital consumer base.

Acquiring Spencer ‘Gorilla’ Ealing, who is currently regarded as the world’s best player having won the 2017 Fifa Interactive World Cup, has certainly helped.

“It was a big deal and took a lot of people by surprise,” Matt Vincent, business development manager for UNILAD’s esports team, tells BBC Sport.

“We are still in our infancy, but we’re looking to bridge the gap between esports and the mainstream.”