Last summer eyebrows were raised when Burger King took the surprising decision to sponsor League Two club Stevenage FC.

With the Lamex outfit struggling at the bottom of the fourth tier of English football prior to lockdown, many outside north Herts were questioning the move.

However, fast forward a season and they've become one of the most marketable clubs in the game.

How?

By tapping into FIFA 20, offering free food such as the company's trademark Whoppers in return for gamers completing in-game challenges, while playing as the The Boro – that's how.

The upshot from such a stroke of marketing genius is that humble Stevenage have now sold out all their club shirts at £42.99 a pop, are the most played FIFA 20 team on live streaming platform Twitch, and are known around the globe!

CEO Alex Tunbridge said: "Last June when we signed a deal with Burger King to become our main club sponsor, eyebrows were raised and social media went into meltdown.

"Fast forward 15 months and here's the reason why we did it and what we achieved.

"Thank You Burger King for what has been a Whopper of a partnership!

"We are Stevenage - we do things differently."

Not a bad return for the £50k Burger King forked out to sponsor the club from Broadhall Way.

Marcelo Pascoa, their global head of grand marketing, revealed the group were passionate "not only for the big teams, but also for the smaller ones that are poised for something big".

And that's exactly what happened.

Tunbridge and the Boro teamed up with creative boffins at DAVID The Agency and thought up ways of drawing attention to the north Herts club.

A project was cooked-up to use FIFA 20, where virtual Stevenage players could unlock special Burger King deals by completing challenges and uploading the video to Twitter.

Challenges included 'A Nutmeg for Nuggets' and 'Impossible for Impossible Whopper', as the gamers - all wearing their distinctive official Stevenage tops of course – eagerly shared their video clips online in return for food and free delivery.

With free fast-food up for grabs the campaign went viral with feeding frenzy's across USA, China, Mexico, Brazil, France, Germany, Russia, Sweden and Spain and of course the UK – catapulting little old Stevenage into the limelight with more than 25,000 goals shared by gamers online.

In doing so they became the most used team in 'Career Mode' and on Twitch, with players adding Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to their virtual club.

Burger King's deal with Stevenage is set to expire at the end of this season – but who knows what else the tiny club in north Herts is cooking up next.