The Australian Open Breaks into the NFT Space with AO Art Ball
What You Need To Know
The Australian Open NFT experience is a cross category event. Detailed more in the event’s lite paper, the Australian Open 2022 features an ecosystem of experiences that are made up of five categories: Utility, Art, Sport, Community, and Collectibles.
The AO will be live streamed in the metaverse. Throughout the tournament, fans will be able to explore the Open’s grounds virtually —in Decentraland. The Melbourne Park AO precinct will be accessible from anywhere in the world and will include 24 hour live-streams, access to historic match content, and virtual tennis matches.
Fans will own a piece of the court. Each NFT minted by fans will be allocated one of 6,776 court plots that correspond to a small piece of the court. The open will use electronic line-calling technology to track and plot the locations of each ball.
Generative NFTs, championship balls, and match point rewards are all aspects of the AO Art Ball utility. Throughout the tournament, the Open will track the locations of match points and will update the metadata of the NFTs with stickers and points. Additionally, the plot owner of the 11 championship points will have the opportunity to claim a physical tennis ball used in the championship match and trophy case.
The Australian Open kicked off on January 17th in Melbourne as tennis’s first slam of the year and amid controversy relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Open also launched their AO 2022 Art Ball NFT ownership experience which set out to be one of the most immersive web 3 experiences yet for a professional sports league.
The tournament touts itself as an ecosystem of experiences spanning art, sport, community, utility, and the metaverse. The five categories the Open is focusing on to build this experience are Utility, Sport, Community, Art, and Collectibles. Within these categories, fans will receive access, rewards, and privileges never before seen for tennis. Daily rewards throughout the tournament, member-only Discords, physical tennis balls from championship matches, and Decentraland access are all among the benefits of participating in the AO22 Art Ball experience.
One of the standout characteristics of the AO22 NFTs is the court fractionalization. The court was divided into 6,776 plots and the plot tied to the NFT is revealed after the balls are minted. Each AO22 Art Ball NFT will be randomly assigned a plot and holders will receive points whenever match or championship points land in their zone. Additionally, plot holders of championship points will be able to receive a real tennis ball used in the match as well as other perks. The full 6,776 collection will be made up of a generative series (6,585), an artist series (~160), and a legend series (22).
Another aspect of the experience is the tournament’s commitment to global accessibility. A large piece of the tournament experience takes place in the metaverse in the Melbourne Park AO precinct of Decentraland. The metaverse experience includes global access, 24 hour live-streams, historical match content, virtual tennis games, and more. The event also has prioritized environmental conservation, community and charity and has roadmapped out future plans for the next three years.
For more information, check out the Australian Open Art Ball website at https://ao.artball.io