Australian Open, the renowned tennis tournament held every year in Melbourne, is introducing art balls NFTs tied to live match data, so collectors can own a piece of the tournament.
AO art ball NFT collection
6,776 AO Art Ball NFTs will be minted as part of the Metaverse project; each AO Art Ball will be associated with a 19cm x 19cm plot of each tennis court surface. The NFT metadata will be updated in real-time with match information whenever the winning shot from one of the 400+ AO matches lands on that plot.
The AO Art Balls public sale and minting begin at 10:00 AEDT on 13 January / 18:00 ET 12 January and can be accessed at AOartballs.io.
Australian Open enters the Metaverse
Additionally, the Australian Open will provide an immersive and interactive experience for its fans through a virtual hosting of its matches in Decentraland, a 3D virtual reality platform, allowing tennis fans to explore the tournament virtually.
Users can explore the precinct, engage in challenges, view historic AO content and interact with players and other tennis fans.
“We want the AO to be the world’s most accessible and inclusive sports and entertainment event, and with the unique challenges fans have faced getting to Melbourne we’ve fast-tracked our launch into the Metaverse,” Tennis Australia NFT and Metaverse Project Manager Ridley Plummer said.
The AO Decentraland event will begin at 10:00 AEDT on 17 January / 18:00 ET 16 January and can be accessed at events.decentraland.org for the duration of the tournament.
