The year 2022 has been very challenging for those in the Web3 space, especially with a high number of failed initiatives, and scandals.
In an article, “The potential of Web3 in the Sports Industry as seen by World Football Summit Speakers, 2022”, published by the World Football Summit’s official website, views of several sports and technology industry experts have been shared for public access.
On going through this compilation of industry experts’ views, it can be understood that Web 3.0 is not for a quick win, it is for the long term. The perception that persists today of “Web 3.0 is as setting up, releasing fan tokens, making money and leaving. This is not true of Web 3.0 – it is forever. It is a strategy for 10-20 years to engage fans– it needs that kind of commitment”.
Several sports leagues, clubs, and elite professional sports persons themselves have ventured into Web3 space, with the intention of engaging all fans, especially newer and younger fans through an immersive experience. Below is the list of several such projects, including LaLigaLand, a metaverse ecosystem of LaLiga (Spanish Men’s Professional Football League), a 24X7, 365 days immersive fan engagement space, can be accessed here.
What these projects showcase?
The commitment of the largest sports brands of the world to a Web3 strategy. A strategy that is completely fan centric, where fan experience and engagement approach will be the deciding factor for the success of the web3 ecosystem. A futuristic approach, with awareness of the fact there is a gap between the virtual and the real. Creating a virtual environment for a better real life experience of an event, a match, a player presentation, player interaction, etc.
What should this mean to other businesses?
Given the number of fraudulent activities in Web3 space, in addition to lack of clarity as to how the metaverse space will pan out, many organizations are hesitant to take a step towards exploring Web3. including metaverse space. However, one good news to all these organizations or businesses that are looking to explore Web3 space but not sure how, when, where, and with who! Here’s a possible solutions.
Sports leagues like LaLiga, NBA, ICC, etc. are well reputed. These sports organizations have a huge fan following across the world, and have stood for the principles of the sport. If an organization is concerned about the viability and trustworthiness of a certain Web3 project, then exploring smaller projects in partnership with these leagues’ or organization’s web3 project could just be the first place to start off, so as to understand whether their own business is future ready to cater to the needs of their future consuments (GenZ and further). Here is a detailed link on why large global brands are investing in web3, and it may just be worthy considering for your own business.
Web3 Sports Projects: below I am providing a list of Web3 Sports Projects across various sports, ranked in no order.
- LaLigaLand:
LaLigaLand is the metaverse ecosystem of the world’s most popular men’s professional football league based out of Spain, with hundreds of millions of followers across the world. This is built by StadioPlus, While this is a metaverse ecosystem, LaLigaLand has several spaces which can be leased for events like the press or media zone, conference rooms, stadium, shuttle service between various spaces, exclusive VIP zones, a stadium where fans are already organising games amongst themselves and possibly telecast of the LaLiga games in the stadium where fans from all over the world can connect together within LaLigaLand while watching them in the stadium, socialisation rooms, etc.
In short, “LaLigaLand”, is an interactive and entertainment virtual world made up of different areas, attractions and activities, which is open 365 days a year to all users around the world with exclusive access and benefits to LaLigaLand Season Pass holders along with a referral program as an incentivization. Laligaland is an ecosystem that provides opportunities, access and enablements for brands that are willing to test the waters in metaverse space by organising events, creating limited mini games for fans around the event (example: Chinese New Year Celebration currently happening, few activations by and for fans during the FIFA World Cup, Qatar, 2022; etc. all within two months launch of the ecosystem – more details pertaining to these can be found here .
Spaces are available in the stadium, press centre, museum, social zone, etc. for sponsorship activations for brands’ advertising purposes. Furthermore, the museum can be used for showcasing NFT collections of brands for a duration of short to long term. Brands looking to launch their own NFT collections can also conduct events, and avail the expert service of the team in-house for creating successful collections.
- Manchester City, the recent English Premier League winner, with Sony, has chosen to collaborate to build a Metaverse for the team’s supporters. The Japanese electronics company Sony announced at CES 2023 that its “Proof of Concept” would let spectators engage with a virtual replica of Etihad Stadium or participate in various online games.
- F.C Barcelona and Real Madrid: two biggest soccer clubs in Spain, Read Madrid and F.C. Barcelona, have applied jointly to receive trademarks for usage in the metaverse, for different activities and services that they can conduct on the metaverse jointly. More details on this project is yet to be made public.
- Australian Open: he Australian Open, 2023 is driving fan engagement through Web3 technology. As per the Head of Web3 at Tennis Australia, technology is used to further tennis participation. In his own words, as published in an exclusive for the chainsaw, Mr. Ridley Plummer states; “For us to utilise Web3 and metaverse technology to essentially rebuild the Australian Open precinct in a virtual world, and allow fans from anywhere in the world to access and see what was going on in real-time behind the scenes […] that was a perfect opportunity for us to leverage technology for good and talk to a new consumer fan base.”
- Golf, America: Several international golf championships are expected to have a web3 strategy, including digital collectibles, metaverse experiences, and digital experiences that provide new and exciting ways for golf fans around the world to engage with the sport that combines real-time data and sports analytics with digital memberships and blockchain-based rewards.
