What the Sport Has to Do With the Metaverse

If you are now legitimately wondering what exactly sport has to do with all these explanations, you are certainly not alone. But the answer to this question is not trivial. Because on the one hand, traditional sports somehow have nothing at all to do with the Metaverse world, but on the other hand, the world of sports will fundamentally change as a result.

Consume Sports – Better than Ever Before

In a virtual sports arena, sports enthusiasts will come together with their virtual avatars, buy and wear fan merchandise of their favorite clubs, socialize, celebrate sports with other fans and, of course, watch the games and events. Of course, there are no geographical and physical barriers anymore. In the Metaverse, any number of fans from Germany can watch the Superbowl in a Metaverse stadium.

Through mutli-view camera technology, spectators can even enter the field itself and walk alongside the players, join the football cheerleaders and watch the game from different vantage points. Last but not least, Metaverse allows everyone to sit in the same room with their friends, even if they are physically miles away.

In Metaverse, fans will no longer just be present at sporting events, but right in the middle of them – and still in the comfort of their own home on the couch or computer chair.

Once again, this sounds like a never-attainable vision of the future, but the Metaverse is once again a step further than you think. The Manchester City club has become the first soccer club to announce that the Etihad Stadium will be virtually recreated in the Metaverse. This will allow fans of the soccer team to watch matches live without having to physically enter the stadium. Development has already begun here.

Fan Articles as NFT

Manchester City’s arch-rival has also already entered the metaverse. With partner Tezos (XTZ), Manchester United has begun creating and marketing digital fan merchandise. These can be purchased by fans as NFTs purchased, collected and, in the future, likely worn in the Metaverse.

The NBA has also been relying on digital fan merchandise since 2020 with its NBA Top Shots project. In this case, on a kind of trading cards, to be more precise video trading cards. Each digital video trading card shows a significant moment in NBA history, which can be collected and traded in the form of NFTs. The most expensive moment to date sold for $387,600 and features a dunk by LeBron James of the LA Lakers from the February 06, 2020 matchup against the Houston Rockets. Eleven days earlier, Lakers legend Kobe Bryant had died in a helicopter accident. With his dunk, LeBron James paid tribute to his late friend.

These examples clearly show that this digital driving experience naturally offers lucrative opportunities for rights holders and manufacturers. Above all, the idea that virtual objects can be “owned” creates numerous new sources of revenue for companies.

Sports Training Opportunities in the Metaverse

But it’s not just the way we consume sports and the digital fan experience that will continue to evolve. The metaverse will also fundamentally change sports training. Ever since platforms like YouTube have existed, videos have been an integral part of sports training, especially for newcomers to sports or self-taught athletes. Fitness programs and sports apps were also first made possible by the mobile Internet and smartphones.

It is likely that the Metaverse will also bring advances in this area. Fitness coaches standing as holograms in one’s own living room and training sessions with the best sports trainers in the world, even though they may be on the other side of the world. There are seemingly no limits to the possibilities here.
Already, companies such as smart bike manufacturer Capti are working to bring sports training into the metaverse. Unlike well-known manufacturers Peloton and Zwift, Capti’s gamified cycling platform relies on 3D worlds developed in the Unreal Engine. This makes the platform compatible with existing virtual worlds. In this way, it is conceivable that you could use your own bike for your races in Mario Cart or simply to get around in a digital parallel world, such as Second Life.

Experts assume that the future of Metaverse will gradually grow and arrive in the reality of sports fans. There will not be able to be a clear separation before and after. Instead, it will simply conquer everyday life in certain areas and with certain offers, products and services, but also skills, first integrating into it and then merging with it completely. And at some point, the metaverse and with it the new sports experience will not only be a reality, but a matter of course.

OUR BRANDS ALL THE TRENDING SHOPS FOR YOU