LaLiga inks TVM deal

TVM becomes the league’s Official Metaverse Partner.

Korean firm TVM has been named as the Official Metaverse Partner of LaLiga Santander. The partnership will see LaLiga work with TVM to create an official digital environment which will engage the fans and also integrate the other partners of the Spanish topflight.

The ‘Triverse’, which is based on TVM’s blockchain, is dubbed as the ‘metaverse for sports’ that allows different leagues and clubs to create interactive experiences for the fans, provides access to content and also take part in mini-games. LaLiga has also announced that the ‘Web 3.0’ development is aimed at expanding its reach, especially towards a younger crowd and also international fans. The development itself is one of the league’s major steps into its digital transformation.

Jorge de la Vega, Commercial and Marketing Director, LaLiga, commented:

“A few years ago, we understood we needed to internationalise and start a digitisation strategy to reach global audiences. We’ve worked to increase our digital ecosystem and we now have 150 million fans [in that ecosystem], while local and international television audiences are growing.

“The key is to have these fans at the centre of everything and you need to engage in various channels and give the users what they want. It’s not just about generating content, but reaching the biggest possible audience.

“We’ve been working on different environments, and we have a multidisciplinary team at LaLiga to see commercial, legal, content and marketing to see how these new technologies could deliver new experiences and content. The key goal [of this partnership] is that we offer fans something different … [such as] engagement and [realise] monetisation opportunities that simply aren’t possible in the real world.“

Josh Kim, Managing Director of TVM, added:

“The reward system will revolve around NFTs, as blockchain technology and NFTs go hand in hand.

“So, naturally, we will have our own trading platform for NFTs. Users will join as fans of a particular sports property, and will have to devote time and energy to building their fan city. At some point, they will be able to see and compare how their fan city has performed compared to other club cities.

“To have a successful metaverse we need IP from sports properties, but the most important thing is the fans. Engagement is the most important thing.“

The TVM partnership isn’t LaLiga’s first steps into the metaverse, though, as the Spanish league already has a partnership in place with GreenPark Sports, a metaverse application that helps LaLiga provide a ‘LaLiga-themed universe’ to the fans, where they can engage with each other and also play against each other in various games and applications.