It might interest you to know that the Australian Open coming up in a few days will be hosted virtually on Decentraland. Decentraland is an open-source 3D virtually reality platform and it is the first fully decentralized world.
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This is a major move by Australian Open to enter into the metaverse. Equally, it is a big plus for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in general. It shows that mass adoption is getting really really closer by the day.
Now, it's not just about partnering with Decentraland to join the metaverse, the Australian Open also launches her first-ever Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) collection named "Australian Open (AO) Art Ball NFTs. This is massive and you'd agree with me on that. These NFTs are linked to data from Australian Open matches.
With this, the Australian Open becomes the first-ever Grand Slam to join the metaverse as well the first Grand Slam to launch a non-fungible token collection. It's interesting to see how the metaverse and blockchain space general is growing. Everyday, we see many big industries and sectors coming into the space to extend their digital footprints. These moves doesn't just boost the space but it also contributes to the general adoption of the financial revolution. Also, these moves imply that the technology has come to stay.
The News
In an update released on January 11 2022, the Australian Open announces its partnership with Decentraland as it enters the metaverse. This implies that the Australian Open will be hosted virtually as a Decentraland event. This is to bring an unprecedented and uninterrupted access to tennis fans all around the world.
Putting into consideration the increasing Covid-19 issues in Melbourne that may likely hinder live attendance of the game, this move by Australian Open was made. So, with the help of a laptop, fans can attend the event virtually and participate accordingly.
Fans can now unite around their love of tennis virtually, and explore the AO precinct online in AO Decentraland for the duration of the tournament. They’ll be able to discover the precinct, complete challenges, view historic AO content, interact with players and other tennis fans, all from their laptops.
For those who are interested, the The Australian Open Decentraland event will go live at 10:00 AEDT on 17 January 2022 / 18:00 ET 16 January 2022 and can be accessed at events.decentraland.org for the duration of the tournament only.
Australian Open Art Ball NFTs
In addition to the metaverse project, Australian Open launches a first of its kind non-fungible token collection. This collection called the AO Art Ball NFTs contains 6776 unique pieces of generative art. These NFTs are linked to Australian Open live match data and this is the first time such an innovation has been made.
Each AO Art Ball’s metadata will be linked to a 19cm x 19cm plot of each tennis court surface. If the winning shot from any of the 400+ AO matches lands on that plot, the NFT metadata will be updated in real-time to highlight the match information.
These NFTs will give tennis fans and lovers the rare opportunity to own a piece of the Australian Open games. Also, the NFTs have utilities such as limited-edition wearables and Australian Open merchandise for now. Other benefits are said to come in the future.
Worthy of note is that, the Australian Open Art Balls public sale and minting begins at 10:00 AEDT on 13 January / 18:00 ET 12 January and can be accessed at AOartballs.io. Interested parties can prepare themselves towards that.
A whole new era is coming for the world of sports thanks to blockchain technology. Taking the Australian Open tournament into the Metaverse is an important step to provide truly global access to one of the biggest sporting events in the world of sports.
About Australian Open
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually in the month of January at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The Australian Open tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.