How to engage sport fans in virtual worlds
One of the biggest challenges of sport teams and leagues is to engage the younger generations. In fact, half of GenZ (47%) said they have never watched a professional sporting event in person. GenZ and Millenials have different expectations: they might be more interested in highlights, interactions with other fans and influencers. One thing we know about them is that they like gaming. 50% of genZ say that they regularly hang out in games, without even playing them. That’s right, games have become social hangout places. In a sence, they’ve become alternative to our pubs!
When it comes to offering virtual worlds to hang out, one big problem is that most sport organizations have to start from scratch. Yet there has been many examples of initiatives by sports organizations to build presence in gamified worlds, for example to name a few:
NFL, Fifa, Wimbledon Tennis and Cricket in Roblox
23 football teams in Fortnite
F1 Williams buying land in a blockchain virtual world
…
Examples of sport organizations partnering with existing games
By offering these experiences, sport organizations can also give fans a behind-the-scenes look at their teams and players, host virtual events and games, and even sell merchandise.
While many sport organizations have been very innovative, they’ve been mostly leveraging 3rd party games rather than building their own. Consequently, they faced by definition the limitations of the games in which they were experimenting. For example:
These games may not necessarily provide great graphics or give justice to each organization's brand image.
They might not be relevant for their existing fanbase. For example, Roblox is particularly relevant for kids, while platforms such as Sandbox or Decentraland are probably best for grown ups who would typically have some understanding of blockchain or crypto,
They may not offer the same level of control over the user experience and data collection as if they launch their own world. It is like selling your product on Amazon before creating your own website. Both can be good for your business but they serve different purposes.
Other players want to own the customer experience and to go beyond someone else’s game, so they decide to build their own platform. This is the case of Manchester City who announced the creation of a digital twin of their stadium. After more than one year of work however, there isn’t unanimity on the graphics and style of avatars in the announcement video showing the work in progress, which seems focused on reproducting the actual games in 3D. We don’t know yet if there is a strong demand for this feature from their GenZ fans, yet we should praise the courage to innovate and pionneer the industry.
Now if you want to have your own platform with high end graphics and the best practices of the gaming industry, with fun casual games for fans, you can also save years of development by using the services of Atom Stars, who has 10 years of experience in building beautiful engaging virtual worlds, and offers a white label solution. Atom Stars recently built a branded immersive golf game for LIV Golf tournament to connect to the younger generations, and was shortlisted by with premier league football club Southampton FC to work on a prototype for a new kind of virtual world for fans.
In terms of monetization, here is another article showing the steps taken to generat the first $500k in merchandise sales in a virtual world, without any brand or marketing budget.
In conclusion, building a virtual experience can be a powerful new channel for sport organizations to engage fans and give them a unique, behind-the-scenes look at their teams and players while generating new revenue streams and address segments that could otherwise be missed.
If you have any question, please feel free to reach out here.