For traditional sports, eSports presents the threat of the new kid on the block: it is a tall, mysterious and handsome leather jacket wearing novelty, and there’s an interesting possibility that a younger audience will be seduced by its bad-boy charms and hip new style.

And during the Premier League’s international break, this is a good time to think about the niche that eSports can settle into. It may be a threat to the traditional sport, but as with all new changes to the landscape, it also represents an opportunity.

As someone who is not totally immersed in the world of the eSports industry – just someone who is interested in its rapid growth and what that will mean for the sport and entertainment worlds more generally – the fact that football clubs seem to be snapping up the best gamers and grouping together to form eSports leagues means that they either see potential for themselves, or else they see a massive threat. And whilst that is maybe not an existential threat, it’s certainly one which could steal some of their thunder. Either way, they’re getting involved.

The question is what form that involvement will take.

Sky Sports has reported that the French Ligue 1 has already announced its timetable: there will be a winter league and a spring league before a play-offs season later in the year. There has already been speculation that the German Bundesliga will create its own league, too. And their timetable would, presumably, fall in line with the French one and allow for a European competition between the winners.

But what’s interesting about the German football league is its long winter break: there is no football for a month, and that means that the eyes of German football fans could be firmly directed to their clubs’ eSports teams rather than their football teams. Especially if there’s a competitive league on EA Sports’ FIFA series. The link between physical football and FIFA 17 is fairly logical and plays into the average football fan’s lust for competition involving their club. If you’re willing to watch 11 footballers representing your club run around a pitch, why not 11 virtual players?

If you’re a fan and you support, say, a Premier League team, you’re probably faced with that same stark choice this week, too: you either watch the international football that no one cares about, or you watch no football at all. If you’re a diehard fan, the international break forces you to get your fix elsewhere – a structured eSports league offers fans the chance to follow their club, and offers clubs the chance to continue to engage their fans.

One of the best things about football – from an entertainment point of view – is how well-structured it is. You always know what will be on and when it will be on. And if you don’t, it’s easy to find. And from an eSports point of view, that means you know when the audience is at its most engaged – and when it isn’t being engaged well at present.

Take, for example, Saturday and Sunday mornings, currently populated by pre-match lad-heavy banter shows: a niche ripe for invasion by an eSports competition relevant to fans who are basically just killing time before the games that afternoon. It’s a forgiving audience, too – you just have to be better than what’s currently on offer.

A pre-match build-up show that incorporated a corresponding eSports fixtures on FIFA 17 would represent an opportunity for domestic football leagues to work to a mutual benefit with an industry which they may regard as a threat.

So maybe the most threatened groups should be TV channels themselves – though again, threats breed opportunities and chances to get involved.

Fans are becoming more and more dependent on digital media for their football-related entertainment, and more and more engaged with their clubs across social, too. They don’t necessarily want build-up – and going forward, perhaps even news and comment – from third parties.

Football clubs are starting to see the potential in eSports, and if they start to see games as part of the entertainment around their sport – just like talk shows, interviews, opinion etc –  they could wrest pre-match build-up and the international breaks away from the status quo in their fight for fans’ attention.