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RSX Sports is delighted to work with the absolute elite in the metaverse industry to revolutionise how sports fans engage with their favourite sports, teams and athletes, and how they consume content and experiences.
We spent more than a year doing a deep-dive on web3 and the metaverse, its potential applications, where it's gone wrong, where its opportunities are, building relationships with blockchain pioneers and scouring the market to find the best, most innovative, mind-blowing and safe brands and service providers.
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We do not get involved with crypto. Quite simply, we don't trust it and we never did, even prior to the Crypto Winter of 2022. Anything which is as volatile as crypto is unsafe for you, us and, most importantly, your fans. You simply cannot risk the safety of your fans, regardless of the money on the table. The spate of brands who have appeared and disappeared within the crypto space over the last couple of years is a damning indictment of the crypto space, as are the questionable practices of many businesses in this space. We believe that anything which can make you or lose you money on this scale should be the domain only of well-established and regulated institutions. Furthermore, we cannot ever see a time when crypto reaches the critical mass adoption which not only turns it mainstream but reduces the volatility to where it IS safe, essentially fluctuating no more than fiat currencies. Why? Because there is no intrinsic need for it, crypto does not provide a solution to a problem and therefore will never be NEEDED, and when there is no need it is almost impossible to get mass adoption.
More importantly, the vast majority your fans simply do not trust it. The case for crypto has never been truly made (mostly because there is no real case) and the communication around crypto is foggy at best. A huge proportion of the world, never mind sports fans, suspects that crypto is a scam, and why wouldn't they? In 2021 crypto scammers coined in more than $14BN in 2021, while more than 46,000 individuals in the United States were scammed out of more than $1BN that same year. This puts any rightsholder engaging with crypto brands on course for conflict with their fans, risking serious backlash and that's before we take into account fans being left with worthless Fan Tokens by the collapse of IQONIQ in 2022.
We do, however, quite like the technology which underpins crypto and all of web3.....
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We believe our responsibility as an agency and consultancy for elite rightsholders is to ensure that they, and their fans, are not at risk in the metaverse and all web3 spaces. They should be able to engage with metaverse brands and projects with total faith that the proposition is only ever going to add value, to provide experiences, opportunities and engagement which simply could not be delivered in any other medium, and will enhance the relationship between the sport/team and the fans. Commercially, it has to work for our clients, that goes without saying, but first and foremost it should be about the fans. If fans aren't on board, if they aren't excited by it and/or don't trust it it's simply not going to work. To that end, we viewed it as our duty to protect rightsholders and fans by only ever bringing the very best, safest and most innovative and mind-blowing opportunities to our clients. So we spent more than a year down the web3 rabbit-hole assessing the brands and opportunities, understanding the risks and opportunities, analysing the failures, building the relationships and playing around with the products. This was right up our street. As Scots, we're naturally cynical and sceptical about everything new - everything is a potential scam until we're satisfied otherwise. We will only ever introduce opportunities which meet our criteria:
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Mind-blowngly awesome. It has to look and feel like something from another universe and it has to deliver an experience so rewarding that fans will want to come back time and again. If it doesn't look and feel like Ready Player One then why would anyone over 8 years old be interested?
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Simple. The metaverse is, in essence, a giant, multiplayer online game. It has no need to be complicated. It should be, simply, a place for fans to come, engage with their heros, enjoy unique and incredible events and experiences, engage with each other and play.
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Safe. Both in terms of protecting your fans financially and, in a massive interactive multiplayer environment, emotionally.
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Accessible. 3D VR headsets are great and create a more immersive experience - Apple's Vision Pro headset will be phenomenal, a game changer - but hardly anyone uses them because they're so expensive. In 2022 only 9.6 million headsets were sold, in contrast to 286.2 million laptop/PCs and 1.22 BILLION devices. The metaverse is supposed to be for everyone and, for sports, must be about providing access to fans all over the world. Restricting the metaverse to owners of headsets is the antithesis of this. Any metaverse we recommend to our clients should have the capability to be enjoyed in an immersive, 3D experience but must be accessible in 2D on smartphones, laptops, PCs, tablets and smart TVs.
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Free to enter. There's no issue around fans spending money, if they wish to do so, on elevated events, experiences and games inside the metaverse but it should be free to enter and there should be events, experiences and games which are free to experience.
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Valuable. Events, experiences and games provide obvious value to fans but from a rightsholder perspective the true value of the metaverse for rightsholders is in the ability to build deeper, more meaningful relationships with fans worldwide, to give fans a voice, to understand and learn from the fans so that rightsholders can make the best decisions, whether sporting or otherwise.
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Commercially viable. At the top of the list from a rightsholder perspective but at the bottom of the list in reality, because unless all the above is in place then the metaverse isn't going to be commercially viable in the long term. But for all that, a big part of our responsibility to clients is to make them money. The metaverse MUST provide that. There must be viable revenue streams; ticket sales, in-app gaming purchases, physical and digital product sales, sponsorship and advertising opportunities, the potential for sponsors and partners to be involved, access to/co-ownership of rich data which rightsholders can use commercially and, where possible, some guaranteed money too.
The metaverse can and WILL revolutionise how sports fans engage with their heroes and how they consume content and experiences. The technology allows fans from all over the world to experience sport as individuals, and together, like never before.
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Community engagement and Management
Web3.0 provides sports team and rightsholders unparalleled opportunities to engage fans, reward them with exclusive experiences and to give them a voice.
Even better, it allows them to create deeper, more meaningful relationships with their fans than is possible in any other medium.
Attention Economy
Sport competes, not only with other sports, but a whole world of content for the attention of its audience. the metaverse allows for storytelling which is open, dynamic and unique, attracting new fandom and deepening engagement.
And it allows teams and righstholders opportunities to be really creative and innovative in how they communicate to and engage with fans.
Tokenomics
fan Tokens which you can buy on exchanges are rubbish. They have limited value and are at the mercy of both crypto volatility and shark-like speculators who are NOT true fans. But it doesn't need to be this way. Web3.0 powered Social Tokens can excite fans through Tokenised experiences and interactions, providing real value to fandom, if they are safe and have real intrinsic value - and not the future financial value -, things that fans covet and treasure. Premium content, AMAs (Ask Me Anythings), predictor games, missions and more increase engagement, reward fandom and give deeper insight into how fans feel, while chances to WIN Tokens encourages more fan engagement and participation.
In turn, Tokens are a way for fans to unlock truly unique, exclusive content, 'money can't buy' experiences and products.
Digital Assets
Metaverse
Creator Economy
Football Clubs and National Associations are the custodians of heroes, legends and the moments that matter, as well as the things which bring fans together, create community and identify us as loyal followers. From the current first team squad to the icons of yesteryear, from the best goal ever scored to the winning of the cup, and from the kits and the badge to the very place where the magic happens. All of these are assets which can be digitised and sole to create new revenue or distributed to recognise and reward fandom.
You've heard of these as NFTs, get to know them as Collectables and Rewards. Web3.0 allows clubs and national teams to optimise their digital potential, control the narrative and give fans utility and recognition, safely and with trust, and without fear, cynicism or agenda.
Web3.0 powers the new interactive digital universe; the Metaverse. A digital world of Extended Reality (XR), where the virtual world and physical world meet through Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). The place where fans, clubs, national teams and even sponsors can truly come together in meaningful and rewarding engagement.
It's where fans meet fans in 24/7 conversation, where fans' voices can be heard and recognised and where clubs and national teams can take a 24/7 pulse check.
It's a world of play, of interaction and participation. A world where the physical reality becomes digital, whether it's stadiums, club shops or fully kitted out fan avatars. It's a world of limitless possibilities, unforgettable experiences and unparalleled engagement. Where the physical and digital can cross over and combine, where match programmes can come to life and take fans to club stores or sponsors ads, and where connected merchandise and kit can unlock exclusive digital experiences. Football, more than any other sport or industry, is tailor made for the Metaverse.
Web3.0 is tailor-made for the creator-led world we live in, where everyone can create, engage and monetise. Blockchain allows players, managers and fans to be the creators on a club or national team's own platform, where paywalls and sponsorship opportunities abound, creating revenue for you and them, not the social media brands.
As reaction to the European Super League showed, fans are as influential and powerful as they've ever been, with fan influencers followed by millions on social media and YouTube. Web3.0 provides the platform for clubs and national teams to allow the fan voice to flourish and fan influencers to be created.
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Convert Social Fans
Fan Behaviour
Fan Safety
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Clubs and National Teams have sizeable social media audiences, even greater when Player audiences are aggregated in, but with limited engagement and monetisation opportunities. Who really benefits? Meta, Twitter, Snap, TikTok, that's who. Web3.0 allows rightsholders to easily convert a social following into a bona fide community which engages and participates, offering up new revenue and sponsorship opportunities social media just can't.
Understanding fan behaviour is critical not only to effective monetisation of brand and rights but in making the right decisions. Web3.0 provides deep and valuable insight into how fans feel, what's important to them and the decisions they make. Clubs and national teams can use this behavioural data to make the best decisions and to add real value to sponsorship.
Web3.0 is a world of wonder, with incredible opportunities and benefits, but, like any world, there are dangers, especially to the ends users, the fans. Already, we have seen fan pushback against web3.0 because of the practices of a few bad actors and some bad business models. In these cases its the fans who get burned, losing money or having worthless tokens or assets, but it's the club, national team or association who gets the blowback and shoulders the blame.
Football3.0 helps to de-risk web3.0 to protect fans and the relationships they have with those they support. We help with communication and education, and with creating completely safe web3.0 experiences for fan utility, which benefits only those who matter, not shady brands or speculators.
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RSX Sports is delighted to work with, arguably, THE best metaverse creators in the business, a group of creators which has come together to create an incredible new sports and entertainment universe with one objective: to create and deliver truly mind-blowing experiences for fans. With the first true-photorealistic metaverse product, our partners work with the likes of Apple, Nike, Universal Music Group, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, Nokia, Endeavour, Hyperreal, Samsung, Warner Music Group, Rita Ora, Calvin Harris, HP, Ikea and even Meta - yes Meta. Our partners are that good at what they do that they've been drafted in by the guys who brought the metaverse to public consciousness in order to fix the mess they made of it! Now, they are turning their expertise to the worlds of sport and entertainment to create lands and worlds of stunning photorealism, interactivity and opportunity.