The unspoken core idea of the metaverse is that only one of the immersive, interactive, virtual reality worlds will win.
That’s the way it’s been in the fiction, from the cyberpunk novel “Snow Crash,” whose Metaverse gave the concept its name, to the more recent movie “Ready Player One” — there has always been one metaverse to rule them all.
In fact, there will probably be a few. Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to rename Facebook to make himself CEO of a social media/metaverse company is telling — the metaverse is the next generation of social media, where individual’s avatars mingle with each other, take in art, sports and entertainment, all supported by brands’ experiential marketing and shopping venues.
And indeed, more than a few social media sites flourish: Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram and TikTok all coexist — although Meta owns three of the top four — as do Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest, Twitter and LinkedIn, to name the second half of the top 10 social media sites.
Just as all those sites have specialties — social interactions, long videos, short clips, one-sentence thoughts, massive text-based communities, business networking — there’s probably the same opportunity in the metaverse industry.
The question is just how specialized the metaverse community will become. After all, at some point a “metaverse” turns into a non-meta virtual reality space.
That’s why it’s interesting to look at sports-focused nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace SportsIcon’s new metaverse project, the creatively named Sports Metaverse.
Backed by some big names in the crypto, NFT, web and sports worlds — among them Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of sports NFT development company Dapper Labs, which was behind NBA Top Shots; former NBA star Andrew Bogut; YouTube Founder Chad Hurley; Andrew Masanto, founder of Hedera, a well-regarded blockchain-like distributed ledger technology (DLT) project; and of course hip-hop artist/crypto investor Nas. It plans to begin selling plots of NFT property in June.
One Community, One Metaverse
The Sports Metaverse will be a world built on “islands,” each dedicated to one sport, although the first two to open, in June, will be the central Sports City and Lion Land, named for SportsIcon’s fan club.
Soccer Land, Gridiron Land, Cricket land and dozens more single-sport themed islands are planned.
They will be home to stadiums where you can view live games, interactive sports bars, private clubs, a casino, and smaller rooms where you can build your sports-themed man- or woman-cave.
“The Sports Metaverse is the next evolution in the fan and sports relationship,” said SportsIcon CEO and Co-Founder Chris Worsey, a veteran of the EdTech world, in a statement. “There has been a tectonic change in consumer behavior accelerated by COVID and Web3. We want to take the fan to the heart of sport, allowing them to interact with their favorite sports stars and brands, buy land next to them and connect with them in entirely new ways.”
Brands and teams will have facilities, pro athletes will do fan interactions and even teach virtual classes. Romelu Lukaku, a striker for the English Premier League’s Chelsea F.C. soccer team and the Belgian national team, will offer fans a class on how to take a penalty shot.
“It’s about concentration and performing mentally,” he said in the release. “There’s a lot of pressure and you only have one chance. I want you to know what it feels like to be in a 1-on-1 training session with me – to be a professional football player.”
There will be plenty of things to buy — both in-world NFT tokens and physical products — and of course a currency.
The Sports Metaverse will use the firm’s own cryptocurrency, $ICONS, for all transactions.
And as in all blockchain-based metaverses like industry leaders Decentraland and The Sandbox, everything — land plots, stadiums, team jerseys, individual avatars — will be built on NFTs.
Sports is a big, big field. But so are movies and TV — except that it’s shrinking into separate verticals joined only by the form of media.
One television with three and then four and then a dozen or so channels became the cable TV universe which grew explosively — remember Bruce Springsteen’s plaintive song “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)” from back in cable’s early days? Then came premium channels, the pay-per-view, and now you’ve got studio-wide channels like Paramount+ and Disney requiring separate subscriptions altogether.
The question for the metaverse is, Will it be able to create the “meta” part of its name? And if so, can it keep it from splintering into separate immersive VR worlds for smaller and smaller communities?
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
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