The BackPage Weekly | Touchdown for the Metaverse – NFL launches first Roblox Super Bowl concert
Written by Chris Paget and Ollie Raggett
The NFL Super Bowl has become widely recognised as the world’s largest single annual sporting event with a global viewing audience of well over 200 million people. Its impact now transcends the spectacle of the sporting event beyond the gridiron itself, with its Half Time Show becoming a firm fixture in the wider entertainment and music calendars.
This year, the NFL has taken a new step and used Roblox to launch its first Super Bowl concert in the metaverse. Featuring the American rap-artist Saweetie, the concert will take place in Rhythm City (Warner Music Group’s virtual experience in Roblox) and will premiere from Friday 10 February and air every hour until Super Bowl Sunday. The concert has been developed in partnership with metaverse game developer Gamefam and is sponsored by Intuit (an American tech company specialising in financial software). Gamefam and Intuit have also been part of the development of NFL’s new Super NFL Tycoon experience which launched this week; allowing NFL fans to access a simulation life as a team owner with a portal enabling users to move between the two metaverse experiences during the Super Bowl weekend.
The growth of metaverse experiences and Web 3.0 activations are not unique to the NFL, as they are being increasingly utilised across the sports industry. Football clubs have understandably been leading the charge. In July 2022, Man City launched a fan-focussed metaverse experience known as the Blue Moon Experience that includes mini-games, activities and in-game rewards as well as a virtual Man City store. Similarly, in January 2023, the Australian Open used Roblox to create AO Adventure, an interactive metaverse game for the traditional Grand Slam championship.
But what is driving the growing number of sports-based activations in the metaverse? Erik Londre of Karta believes brands are recognising the infinite capabilities of the metaverse: “It brings a new, innovative way to build a long-term monetisable asset which connects a brand with a young audience and creates fans for the rest of their lives.” These opportunities can be broadly broken down as follows:
New audiences – the general trend of traditional sport gamification has come from (amongst other things) the increasing conversion between games, TV, film and sporting events. Roblox has a reported 61.5m daily users in September 2022 so a Super Bowl concert allows the NFL to attract previously separate groups and harness the power of gaming, music and sports in one event. It is one (of what should be many) steps that a rightsholder can take to address the ever-ageing demographic of sports fans.
New revenue opportunities – with great existing IP power comes great potential for diversified revenue streams. The growth of an audience within digital environments opens digital monetisation opportunities (such as in-game items) which in turn could segway to other Web 3.0 monetisation models for rightsholders that are able to grow a strong digital-first audience base.
New sponsors/partnerships/investment – the metaverse creates new opportunities for alternative brand partnerships not traditionally seen in sports. The historic Pepsi (now Apple) “Half-Time Show” is now seen alongside partners such as Warner Music and Intuit. Gaming is a (if not the) central component of popular culture. Rightsholders that can harness the power of the engaged digital audiences, through platforms like Roblox, Fortnite CS:GO etc, to create a deep well of new, innovative and potentially lucrative IP assets that attract both sport endemic brands and those not currently associated with sports properties. We are already beginning to see how these arrangements are being structured – as with most digitally first innovations, there is a refreshing democratisation of opportunities for rightsholders, brands and audiences alike.
Activities within gaming environments are undoubtedly a gateway for brand partnerships within the sports industry and we expect to see many more partnerships akin to the NFL/Roblox activation in the future. Erik agrees: “without the laws of physics and cost of raw materials, the opportunities for brands and the sports industry within the metaverse are endless”. It remains to be seen how far the metaverse can go to adjusting the sports landscape and ecosystem and how rightsholders look to harness its potential beyond purely a commercial context perhaps to alter the way sport is viewed, consumed and even played in the future.
Karta is a metaverse studio that helps brands, artists and sports teams connect with the billions of people that inhabit the world’s most popular virtual worlds. With a marketer mindset and over 50 years of experience in gaming, music and esports, Karta has carved a new, accessible and effective way for brands to build long-term presence and achieve real tangible success within the metaverse.