Following the news that Electronic Arts will discontinue making FIFA-branded football games in 2023 when the series will continue under the brand name EA Sports FC, with FIFA intending to launch new games for its upcoming international tournaments, as well as virtual experiences for fans;

Tanveer Aujla, Sport Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, comments:

“The metaverse is an area that sports teams and sports organizations are keen to get a slice of due to its almost limitless potential for digital commerce, as well as the commercial opportunities that will come from new partnerships with the tech giants.

“FIFA’s stature and pulling power means that it won’t have much difficulty in securing a potentially lucrative sponsorship deal that involves the metaverse, and a soccer-related game set in the metaverse would likely be enormously popular. However, the metaverse is still in its infancy in terms of development, so any large-scale projects FIFA has in mind may take years to come to fruition.

“A template for this could be Manchester City’s partnership with Sony to create a VR-based world containing the Etihad Stadium that would allow fans to visit the venue. This is likely to be the first of many partnerships between sports teams and the metaverse.

“In time, Manchester City’s partnership with Sony could theoretically allow fans to ‘attend’ games, which could alter how broadcasting rights are sold, as virtual attendance would be far greater than anything that could happen currently. Teams could potentially look to sell their own broadcasting rights through the metaverse, which would alter the sports broadcasting landscape as we know it.”

• The potential intersections between the metaverse and sport are further detailed in the GlobalData’s report: Blockchain in Sport – Thematic Research
• GlobalData recently conducted a webinar discussing the state of play regarding cryptocurrency, NFTs and the metaverse in more detail.