With just a couple of weeks remaining for the world’s most-anticipated sports event – the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar – the crypto ecosystem and the metaverse are joining in on the action.
As football’s top stars make their way to Qatar to participate in the month-long tournament, well-known brands from the crypto ecosystem are launching new partnerships and initiatives to engage global football fans. The World Cup delivers a unique chance for the industry to connect with millions of potential users via a single event, making it easier to raise awareness and showcase the potential of emerging technologies.
Upland Introduces a Gamified Experience for Football Fans
Furthering this mission to make underlying blockchain technology more relatable and accessible in terms of engagement and experience, metaverse platform Upland has entered into a multi-year official partnership with FIFA. Upland is introducing a gamified experience for football fans and its community members that mingles real-world events with the Upland metaverse, starting with the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
FIFA and Upland have developed entirely virtual replicas of 22 real-world cities mapped to their respective real-world addresses, enabling participants to partake in unique experiences, including collecting, trading, and owning FIFA digital assets and game video highlights. Users can add buildings, country flags, and FIFA-branded decor to their virtual properties and construct virtual shops to sell their digital asset collections to other participants.
Upland will also roll out a FIFA-themed collection game featuring a limited number of mystery bundles with varying rarities. These mystery bundles incorporate important components of the FIFA-Upland metaverse, including country-specific team crests, boots, shirts, historic FIFA World Cup logos, posters, and mascots.
Binance Promotes Its Web3 Potential
Meanwhile, with gamification at its core, the Web3 ecosystem is also capitalizing on the forthcoming event. Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is promoting its Web3 potential in front of millions of global fans through the Binance Football Fever 2022 event. Binance’s first-of-its-kind Web3 game and fan experiences are fully powered by blockchain technology.
The event, which commenced on November 7, grants participating users a chance to earn rewards, including prizes worth more than $1,000,000, limited-edition NFTs, and premium football club experiences like player meetups and training ground tours. Through this event, the cryptocurrency exchange intends to connect people worldwide to build a passionate community of football and sports fans.
Merger Between Mainstream Events and Blockchain Technology is Inevitable
The recent flurry of partnerships unveiled for the 2022 FIFA World Cup – be it the Crypto.com-Visa experience, Binance’s Football Fever 2022, or Upland’s FIFA metaverse and game – underlines that the merger between mainstream events and blockchain technology is inevitable. Moreover, these efforts lay the foundation for a new era of use cases in which on-chain and off-chain ecosystems are combined to offer unique gamified experiences for all audiences and events.
