Australian Open using web3 to make it most accessible sporting event  – Ledger Insights

In January, 900,000 visitors attended the Australian Open (AO) tennis event in real life, with remote visitors able to participate via the Metaverse. AO expanded its web3 offering in 2023 with the goal of making AO the most accessible sports and entertainment event.

This year the virtual events consisted of the AO ArtBall 2023 and the AO metaverse. AO Artball connected NFTs to a 19 x 19 cm chart on the tennis court and when the winning shot of an Australian Open match landed on the spot, the data was recorded on the NFT. The owner then received benefits such as wearables, the winning tennis ball in the event of a championship game, and ground passes for the tournament’s final week the following year. The AO metaverse included virtual hosting of the game alongside other virtual events in decentralizeda platform for virtual 3D worlds.

The Australian Open venture is considered to be one of the more successful listings of sporting events on web3. In an interview during yesterday’s SportsPro Ignition event, the Australian Open’s Ridley Plummer discussed AO’s innovations in this space and highlighted the learnings from its digital strategy.

While the company’s North Star was to make the sporting event accessible, it also focused on bringing value to the owners of the product, making the NFTs more than just a digital collectible. In this case, the NFTs doubled as a digital membership for the event. For membership to be valuable to a customer, its benefits must extend over time and provide unique benefits beyond a normal ticket to a game.

At AO Artball, the owner of the NFT who scored a match point on the AO23 court could win two tickets to the corresponding match at AO24. This aspect provided both an advantage and a sticky integration – meaning members would return to the product in the years to come. Additionally, AO aimed to engage fans during months when other tennis events are taking place around the world.

The preferred financial conundrum of NFTs

However, given all of the product’s additional services, Plummer recognizes the difficulty of ensuring a consistent revenue stream. While NFTs generate a lot of revenue early on, most of the revenue is reinvested in the services provided. In order to reduce the financial pressure, AO consistently wants to bring new members into the community. This happens every year through new releases of the NFTs. For example, it was sold in January 2022 6776 ArtBall NFTs. It was introduced in 2023 Additional Benefits and sold 2454 new NFTs. And the plan is to add roughly the same number every year.

Another part of AO’s strategy was to increase community engagement through the Metaverse. This had to be done through services that are not traditionally provided. For example, broadcasting the game live isn’t enough of an incentive to get fans to visit the Metaverse room. As such, the Metaverse experience offers additional content such as behind-the-scenes footage, access to party events, and interactions—activities not otherwise available to a physical event attendee.

In order to bundle these additional services, the brand also needs trustworthy partners. For the Metaverse experience, AO used Decentraland. In addition to providing a pre-built virtual real estate environment for hosting experiences, it also enabled the brand to sell sponsorship slots on the Metaverse. With the Metaverse expanding on the physical experience with new footage and engagement events, many brands are finding value in investing in it.