Australian Open comes to Metaverse on Decentraland

Tennis Australia has teamed up with Decentraland to host the Australian Open (AO), which will be the first official tennis grand slam in the metaverse.

Virtual recreational facilities in key areas of Melbourne Park, including Rod Laver Arena and Grand Slam Park, will open during the Australian Open. The Australian Open begins on January 17 and will last for two weeks.

The event will feature exclusive content for virtual visitors, including behind-the-scenes footage captured by more than 300 cameras around Melbourne Park, including a dedicated player arrival area and practice village.

In addition to live footage and AO broadcasts, there will be archived footage of tennis matches from the '70s and virtual meetings with tennis players including Mark Philippoussis, and others yet to be identified.

In a virtual welcome address to Decentraland, Tennis Australia NFT and Metaverse program manager Ridley Plummer said he wanted AO to be "the most accessible and inclusive sport and entertainment event in the world".

"Because of the unique challenges fans face when traveling to Melbourne, we have accelerated our move into the Metaverse," he said.

"Bringing AO into the Metaverse is an important step in providing truly global access to our great events."

This is all the more important given that travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have made it difficult for many fans to attend games in Melbourne in real life. The 2021 Australian Open faces a number of challenges, including record low attendance and lockdown restrictions.

Despite the timely introduction of the partnership amid the pandemic, AO plans to continue working with Decentraland in the future, Plummer said. "We're going to be in it for the long haul," he said.

"The Metaverse isn't going away, and as a company we're invested in continuing to grow our online presence and push the boundaries of innovation."

He also added that Tennis Australia is exploring the possibility of being open year-round in the Metaverse.

“We certainly see ourselves as more of an entertainment activity than just a tennis activity. Whether we provide entertainment through the metaverse year-round or just for a few months, that’s definitely something we’re going to do in our roadmap going forward. decision."

Australian Open forms NFT partnership with Sweet

At the same time, on January 17, AO also announced that it will cooperate with the NFT platform Sweet to release six NFT series to commemorate the history of AO over the past 50 years.

The series will be released intermittently between January 17 and 27 to coincide with the timing of the ball games.

Sweet CEO Tom Mizzone said that NFT distribution provides fans with a "truly new level of access" to a glimpse into the idol's world.

He added: "We love the idea of turning IP into digital mementos and linking those memorabilia to experiences."

Separately, AO launched 6,776 algorithmically created “Art Ball” NFTs on Opensea on Jan. 12.

According to Plummer, the series sold out within three minutes of the public launch, with a minimum price of 0.26 ETH (~$875) and a trading volume of 223 ETH ($751,287).

This is not the first competitive match held by the Australian Open in the Metaverse. In 2020, AO hosted Fortnite Summer Smash, an esports event with a total prize pool of $100,000.

The Australian Open has had its own drama, with an Australian court rejecting Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic's appeal against an expulsion order.

Djokovic has publicly criticized the coronavirus vaccination and said he was granted an entry exemption from the Australian government despite not being vaccinated.

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