Professional players like athletes and celebrities are assets whose value increases as skill improves. As time passes, they can face other better-skilled professionals and sharpen their skills, known as a self-reinforcing professionalism cycle. Extraordinary achievements attract more fans and sponsors willing to pay crazy amounts of money to fund their lifestyles and attract more fans in a self-reinforcing celebrity status cycle.
Table Tennis Plan for Non-fungible Token (NFTs)
Ping pong is the new attraction to crypto treatment. The World Table Tennis (WTT) governing body announced its interest in pursuing expansion through Web3 initiatives with the non-fungible token NFT tech. The move affects digital collectibles, metaverse experiences, Play-to-Earn (P2E), move-to-earn gaming in over 50 annual events, and more on Cryptogorilla.com.
Table tennis is not the only sport exploring the metaverse, as the four sports leagues in the US are also using tech to attract new audiences. Although crypto’s role in the future of sports is unclear, Web3 is a marketing tool for tech-savvy statistics.
The Australian Open is the first Grand Slam tournament to shift to the metaverse by announcing several blockchain-related engagements. The popular game released a collection of 6,776 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that reflect the action on the court. It’s a host of a virtual event competing on the metaverse portal known as Decentraland.
As the tournament happens, each winning shot in the 600 matches corresponds to a collection of NFTs. On the other hand, owners will receive an airdrop point with footage of the moment, virtual wearables, and Australian Open merchandise. The data collected to match NFTs comes from the same technology used to make judgments on in-game points. If the winning point is for an NFT owner, they receive a custom ball in an engraved case. However, the court location for every NFT is determined later for 0.067 ETH, which translates to about $350 per piece.
The Role of Metaverse
Decentraland party is an event that allows fans to compete for virtual prizes while the Tennis tournament takes place. It’s expected that this setup is the beginning of virtual events in tennis tournaments.
Looking into the Future
After the pandemic challenged physical meetings, virtual events are becoming commonplace. A good example is the New year’s party thrown in Decentraland by One Times Square owner, and the attendees were global metaverse, early adopters. The festival is full of entertainment because, in the actual tennis tournament, people can go for eight hours without spotting the ball, which makes the metaverse logical progress.
Sport and innovation
The metaverse is a new initiative in the Australian Open, which the tournament confirms as focusing on new technology. For example, in the 2020 edition, where the Fortnite Summer Smash (eSports event) hosted games with 12 countries participating, the prize pool was $100,000. Further down, the 2021 US open launched several collectible cards that fans could purchase in the Bitski marketplace.
Examples of Blockchain Application
Naomi Osaka, the Women’s Tennis Association champion, is the latest addition to the blockchain professional player’s list. Naomi is now a global ambassador for FTX with an equity stake in the business. As a result of the partnership, FTX will brand Osaka’s kit during the 2022 Miami Open, and her pay will be in digital currency.
According to their contract, Osaka is also expected to produce FTX branded content for the long term. According to Osaka, women are few in the crypto industry compared to men, which is directly translated to other financial markets. Since cryptocurrencies’ main goal is inclusivity, she intends to break the barriers of being part of it. Her main goal is to innovate ways to reach more people and democratize the space.
Some tokens like ACE are software with cryptographic elements fans buy to use in the ACE portal. They’re based on the Ethereum protocol and follow the common ERC20 standard. Once you purchase ACE tokens, you can support favorite athletes, interact with the platform, and access exclusive offers while receiving payment for activity.
Conclusion
Using celebrities and professional players to promote a risky business-like digital money is questionable, but it’s happening. Cryptocurrencies are a risky speculative investment and investors might not receive sufficient information on their downsides. Tennis is a popular game with Olympics viewership, making it a ripe market for cryptos. For this reason, the sport is increasingly monetized to utilize its rich fan base in virtual events.
