In the second week of January NBA franchise The Brooklyn Nets became the first elite professional hoops team to create its own virtual world – called, of course, the ‘Netaverse’.
The Nets tested out its new and evolving ‘Netaverse’ virtual world almost-live game broadcast during its 15 January home game against the New Orleans Pelicans at its home court Barclays Center.
The initiative sees 3D renderings of players in action created for fans to view in virtual reality just seconds after the action actually takes place in games on the court. The team’s ‘Netaverse’ utilises more than 100 high-resolution cameras to capture a 360-degree virtual-reality experience at home games. These images are fed into Canon’s ‘Free Viewpoint System’ which then generates the 3D models and images of every player.
The team’s fans can then position themselves anywhere along the court’s sidelines or even in the middle of the court to watch and experience the virtual action from their personally preferred angle.
The move follows on from an October tie-up which saw the franchise agree a partnership with blockchain-based fan engagement platform Socios.com as it sought to explore and develop “new and unique ways to engage fans”.
The Nets official Twitter account, however, retweeted YES Network’s original post on the new technology.
The @BrooklynNets @YESNetwork & @NBA introduces the new tech called The Netaverse. #Nets & Barclays is the first arena & team to have this technology.#NetsWorld #Metaverse pic.twitter.com/fCV2OnylZz
— Jeri Tsai (@JeriTsaiNets) January 16, 2022
“The Netaverse will bring viewers to places on the court never seen before,” stated a YES Network’s video statement showing virtual avatars of the Nets players in action on the virtual court rendering.
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The Nets’ move into the virtual space comes as sports marketers – from rights owners and broadcasters, to teams and brand sponsor – race to communicate in the metaverse.
The metaverse may have only come into the mainstream consumer conversation since Facebook’s parent company rebranded as Meta as it moved more firmly into the immersive virtual reality space. But, judging from the number of initiatives launched in recent months, many sports marketers planning and activating in the space well before this.
Notable early movers in the space range from ‘Australian Open in Decentraland’, ‘Vans World’ and ‘Nikeland’ in Roblox to Stella Artois’ ‘Racing In The Life Artois’ in Zed Run.
According to new Goldman Sachs analyst predictions, the metaverse will become an $8 trillion market.
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