Wagmi United, the group of U.S. cryptocurrency investors that bought English soccer club Crawley Town F.C. earlier this year, is partnering with Adidas to create NFTs for the team that fans can collect to earn physical and digital merchandise from Adidas. The brand is also now the kit manufacturer and apparel partner of Crawley Town, the first EFL League Two club to strike such a deal with Adidas.
Crawley Town’s first NFTs will debut July 6, with the collection designed and produced in partnership with Adidas. NFT holders will be able to vote on key issues facing Crawley Town, such as deciding whether Wagmi United’s co-founders Preston Johnson and Eben Smith will keep their co-chairmen roles with Crawley Town if it does not earn promotion to League One by the end of their second full season as owners of the team.
Philadelphia 76ers president Daryl Morey is among the investors in Wagmi United, which finalized its purchase of Crawley Town in April. The group aims for Crawley Town to be known as “the internet’s team.” Johnson is a former gambling analyst at ESPN while entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk is also part of Wagmi United’s ownership.
FC Barcelona’s iconic soccer stadium has officially been renamed Spotify Camp Nou as part of the LaLiga club’s sponsorship with the audio streaming service. A mural featuring Spotify’s name and logo alongside Barca men’s and women’s players has been added to the stadium’s exterior.
Spotify reached its five-year deal in March to become Barcelona’s audio streaming partner and have its logo appear on the front of the club’s men’s and women’s jerseys, replacing previous shirt sponsor Rakuten. The Spotify app and Barcelona’s social networks will host audiovisual content from the team’s training sessions as part of the deal.
“The club and Spotify are looking to bring together two worlds that arouse special passions among their fans, namely music and sport, with an eye to creating new experiences that will revolutionise the fan experience and offer a single platform on which to connect players and artists with followers around the world,” reads an announcement from FC Barcelona.
Barcelona recently sold a 10% stake in its LaLiga TV rights for the next 25 years for $215 million to U.S. private equity group Sixth Street, which also owns a stake in the publicly-traded Spotify. The Spanish soccer club plans to play in Estadio Olímpico Lluís Companys for the 2023-24 season due to ongoing renovations at Spotify Camp Nou before returning to Camp Nou for the 2024-25 season.
Users of the expansive NFT marketplace OpenSea are victims of a significant data breach after a third-party employee erroneously downloaded and sent subscribers’ email addresses to an unauthorized external recipient.
OpenSea customers and newsletter subscribers have since received a notification from the company warning them to be wary of emails from unknown websites and to overly protect passwords and secret codes. OpenSea also vowed not to send emails asking for a wallet transaction.
The company, in a tweet, said, “An employee of our email vendor, http://Customer.io, misused their employee access to download & share email addresses with an unauthorized external party. Email addresses provided to OpenSea by users or newsletter subscribers were impacted.’’
According to data from Dune Analytics, more than 1.8 million users have made at least one purchase through OpenSea’s network. The most obvious attack that could be deployed is email phishing attacks.
OpenSea, which purportedly owns more than 80 percent of the NFT market share, was also subject to a phishing attack in January after $1.7 million worth of NFTs were inexplicably unavailable to users. In January of this year, the company also admitted that 80% of NFTs created for free on its platform were plagiarized.
Sports teams to have sold NFTs on the OpenSea marketplace include the Golden State Warriors, Boston Celtics and Washington Capitals—just to name a few. According to their website, OpenSea also sells Sorare’s digital trading cards along with Formula 1 NFTs from Animoca Brands.
With its credibility at stake, OpenSea co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer made it clear on an early June blog post that protecting customers was of the highest priority. “We at OpenSea feel a huge responsibility to ensure our users are safe while also providing the most expansive, inclusive access to the NFT ecosystem possible.’’
Finzer also described the implantation of a verification system and a copymint prevention application. But the latest data breach has since created more doubt.
Portugal’s 2022 Primeira Liga Champions, FC Porto, announced a deal with Upland making them the first European soccer club to enter the metaverse. Upland is an open Web3 platform mapped to the real world in the metaverse. The club is bringing the roar of the stadium, pioneering fan engagement and empowering the communities of FC Porto into Upland system. The two are partnering to build the future of the soccer fandom in the metaverse.
Fans of FC Porto will get the chance to purchase NFT properties mapped from the real world like the construction of the clubs Estádio do Dragão (Dragon Stadium) and the launch of the first suite of NFTs of a European soccer club. Along with that, Upland will give the fans the opportunity to collect common and rare NFTs via fun and engaging game mechanics and activities. They will offer their NFTs in player-owned and operated shops located on their virtual properties throughout the metaverse.
The fans will get the opportunity to engage with this experience as FC Porto and Upland will roll out the first phase during the 2022-23 season.
LaSource, a digital sports agency, has partnered with markerless motion capture and augmented reality startup Move.ai to help it break into the sports and entertainment industries.
Move.ai, which is based in London and can capture data from any camera, has completed proofs of concept in soccer and video games with similar projects planned for boxing and tennis. The hope is to apply its motion capture technology broadly in gaming, coaching, biomechanics and fan engagement, such as through Web3 and metaverse experiences.
LaSource co-founder and chief strategy officer Jean-Baptiste Alliot previously ran the UEFA Innovation Hub. Its CEO, Samuel Westberg, has broad sports and tech experience including time at Paris FC, Greenfly, LiveLike. Move.ai is the second startup to join its LeStudio programme.
Major League Rugby debuted live sports betting on The Rugby Network this past weekend during its final games of the season. Matches livestreamed on The Rugby Network included on-screen wagers from Australian sportsbook PlayUp for viewers to place real-money bets directly through their smart TVs or other streaming devices.
The live in-game betting experience was available to fans located in states with legalized online sports betting. Interactive sports betting company Tappp facilitated the single-screen betting experience for MLR. This past weekend’s betting integration came in addition to the free-to-play Pick&Go on-screen game that The Rugby Network debuted with Tappp earlier this season.
Major League Rugby announced its partnership in April with Tappp, which will leverage activity data from its Pick&Go game to create an enhanced free-to-play and real-money betting offering for MLR’s 2023 season. Tappp raised $10 million in April and is having discussions with several broadcasters and sportsbooks outside of PlayUp to launch similar watch-and-bet experiences later this year.
Endurance athletes are now able to receive both personal and algorithmic intelligence coaching from triathlete pioneer Mark Allen, through the fitness company TriDot.
Allen, a six-time winner of the original IRONMAN triathlon event in Hawaii, has teamed with TriDot—a division of Predictive Fitness, Inc.—to unveil the TriDot Mark Allen Edition. The platform will provide endurance athletes with Allen’s and other coaches’ advice, alongside algorithmic intelligence that generates training programs in real time through wearables.
The algorithmic data is designed to improve athlete performance, monitor fatigue levels and reduce a competitor’s injury or illness risk. Predictive Fitness deploys AI, machine learning and predictive analytics to inform athletes, as well as the general public. Its subsidiary, TriDot, uses software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology to specifically optimize triathlete training.
Allen not only dominated the IRONMAN, but once went two full years without losing a race. He currently serves on the IRONMAN University Advisory Board and has been coaching for 25 years.
Toptracer, a staple of the Topgolf experience due to its analytic capabilities, has launched a more versatile and advanced version called Toptracer30 that will grade a player’s performance level.
Toptracer30’s technology, which will be available at participating driving ranges, will allow customers to swing their clubs in 30 virtual golf scenarios—nine different type of tee shots and 21 unique approach shots—to calculate a final assessment based on distance, accuracy and greens hit while approaching.
Marketed as a “bridge’’ between a driving range golf and on-course golf, the Toptracer30 experience will also give golfers real-time feedback after each shot to help them navigate the digital par 4 and par 5 course. After the round of 30 swings ends, golfers will receive an estimate of their handicap based on their performance. As usual with Toptracer technology, metrics such as carry, distance and ball velocity will be available.
Unlike Topgolf, where balls are embedded with RFID chips, the balls used for Toptracer30 will be tracked with precise camera technology. NBC Sports has been deploying Toptracer technology since 2019 to track shots during PGA Tour telecasts, while Topgolf recently renovated a green-grass course next to their new facility in El Segundo that lets customers experience Toptracer tracking on the par-3 10th hole.
Data analytics and visualization company, BaseballCloud has acquired Aqueti, which uses and optimizes a multi-array camera imaging system and video to data collection. Last year, BaseballCloud acquired ball flight data company Yakkertech. This past April, BaseballCloud and Yakkertech signed an exclusive, multi-year partnership with the Frontier League, a professional independent baseball league, to handle their motion capture and distribution rights.
With the use of Aqueti’s patented lens and micro camera modules and proprietary data compression software, BaseballCloud is planning to deploy the Aqueti technology alongside a new multi-array Yakkertech system with the goals of ensuring data quality, visual acuity and reducing system costs.
Aqueti cameras capture the images which then become interactive digital streams that their technology allows multiple users to manipulate. Their premier Mantis camera, a 19-lens camera with processors that combine images into a 100-megapixel frame, allowing users to zoom in to reveal extraordinary detail.
The NBA is among the latest investors in Zigazoo, a social media app geared toward children under 12. Liberty City Ventures led the $17 million Series A round that reportedly values the company around $100 million.
Several sports-centric groups joined the investment in Zigazoo, including Causeway Media Partners, Dapper Labs, OneFootball and Animoca Brands. Serena Williams and late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel are among the existing investors.
Zigazoo is a TikTok-style video app that includes activities for children and has noted interest in exploring new technologies such as Web3. It began offering NFTs in April. The NBA, which also invested in Nextiles recently, previously collaborated with Zigazoo on content during its All-Star festivities and the playoffs. LeBron James appeared on the platform through its celebrity reading series.
The All England Lawn Tennis Club has partnered with Roblox to launch WimbleWorld, a new 3D virtual world on Roblox that’s modeled after the Centre Court stadium at Wimbledon. Fans can collect in-game ‘Wimblebux’ to redeem for items from Roblox’s virtual Wimbledon shop to customize their avatars with digital merchandise.
Items available in the game’s digital storefront will span virtual branded clothing from Wimbledon sponsor Ralph Lauren, virtual tennis equipment and a digital edition of tennis star Andy Murray’s 2022 AMC cap. Users can also interact with Murray’s avatar in WimbleWorld, which includes a leaderboard and several animated tennis courts for users to play matches amongst their avatars. Virtual screens inside WimbleWorld will also display video highlights from the real-life Wimbledon tournament.
The Roblox metaverse already spans a virtual world from Nike while the NFL sold league-branded digital helmets and jerseys as swag for avatars. Both UEFA and NASCAR have also launched games on Roblox, which has more than 50 million active users.
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