Manchester City Football Club, an association football team based in the United Kingdom are in process of launching a virtual fan engagement platform in the metaverse, according to a Proof of Concept (PoC) video shown at CES 2023.
CES is the most influential technology event in the world and it showcases the work of companies which includes developers, suppliers, and manufacturers of content, consumer technology hardware, and technology delivery systems.
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The PoC video showed a group of avatars interacting in a virtual version of Manchester City’s home ground called Etihad Stadium. Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations which includes creative graphic technologies, video review, vision processing, and optical tracking that has made sports safer, more engaging, and fairer was also shown as part of the PoC.
With fans of the clubs and visitors across the footballing landscape having access to the creation of avatars of their own, Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations will distribute live three (3)-dimensional (3D) video for them to see the players of the Manchester-based football club in a 3D metaverse space.
Sony’s Toshimoto Mitomo, the Officer responsible for Intellectual Property (IP) and Business Incubation Platform made it known that the company will support the club to significantly increase the value of its content as well as its engagement with fans in the country and across the globe.
Manchester City Football Club’s metaverse appearance was in the works
Sony’s latest development with the current champions of the English Premier League comes 14 months after it announced in November 2021 that it had become the official virtual fan engagement partner of Manchester City. At the time, Sony said it was going to combine its technologies with the club’s content to help develop a new digital fan experience.
Football organizations are making use of the metaverse
Due to the enormous opportunity, the metaverse provides in the form of immersive experiences and the production of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) which can add more sales volume to projects, many football institutions have joined the emerging sector.
Serie A, the highest league in Italy broadcasted a live football game between A.C. Milan and Fiorentina in May 2022. The match was made available to viewers in the Middle East and North Africa.
Aside from Serie A, La Liga, the top-tier league in Spain entered the metaverse via strategic partnerships with Vegas City Limited and Stadioplus to offer part of its operations in the metaverse through the Ethereum-based platform Decentraland in September 2022.
Manchester City is active in fan token sales
While the club continues to make gains in the metaverse, it is among the most active football organizations in terms of fan token sales. As of 12 Jan. 2023, Manchester City fan token sales had surpassed more than $4 billion with token price trading between $4 and $5.
Other football clubs with high fan token sales include, but are not limited to, Paris Saint Germain (France), Santos FC (Brazil), Lazio (Italy), FC Porto (Portugal), and Atletico Madrid (Spain).
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