Premier League champions Manchester City are at the forefront of a new rush by English clubs to capitalise on the billion dollar virtual reality market and the burgeoning “metaverse”.
The metaverse is viewed as the next step for social networks, incorporating virtual and augmented reality. And with TV revenue unlikely to bounce much higher than the huge deals negotiated in the last round of negotiations, boardrooms in the Premier League see it as the next untapped market they’re increasingly keen to get a slice of.
It is City, through their City Football Group umbrella company, who are looking to steal a march on their rivals.
It has emerged the club are aggressively chasing opportunities in an area that they believe is the next frontier of “fan experiences”.
More from Football
Steve McClaren confirms 'interest' in Derby takeover and says club 'can be great again'13 January, 2022
The key quotes from Ronaldo's damning interview - but what else was he expecting at Man Utd?13 January, 2022
Chris Wood to Newcastle and Lucas Digne to Aston Villa - full list of Premier League transfers13 January, 2022An industry source told i the metaverse market, which is still in its very early stages, could be worth hundreds of millions in the future with innovations such as virtual reality recreations of matches for overseas supporters.
In a first of its kind from Premier League clubs, the club’s City Football Group umbrella company is advertising for jobs in their Strategy and Ventures Team to “identify growth opportunities within the Metaverse”. The specification of the ad also requires candidates to “explore new and progressive areas of business development such as NFTs”.
Last year the Citizens signed a deal with Sony to develop digital fan experiences and the club claimed they were at the cutting edge of the market. Former Liverpool chief executive Peter Moore recently joined software company Unity to work on similar projects in a sign that sport is looking to grow in that area.
Manchester City can certainly afford to spend on new projects.
It has emerged their operating revenues are poised to overtake City rivals Manchester United for the first time this season, soaring to £537m in a year in which they reached the Champions League final and won the Premier League title.
Manchester United earned £465m, according to the KPMG Benchmark Study.
Newcastle monitor defenders as January deals continue
Newcastle United’s January transfer window moves are being dictated by availability of their top targets.
As i reported on Tuesday, the club are making “good progress” as they look to add a centre-back to the squad before a critical run of games that includes relegation rivals Watford and Leeds.
But the club have made an early transfer window call to pivot to players capable of delivering Premier League safety immediately. “Nothing else matters, the long-term stuff can wait,” a senior source told i.
Newcastle are working on a deal for Sevilla’s Diego Carlos, who has been identified as a good fit for the Premier League.
Liverpool’s Nat Phillips is another name high on Eddie Howe’s wanted list and the Reds are open to offers for the 24-year-old. But he would not come cheap, with a £15million price tag on the centre-back.
Lille resisted moves for top target Sven Botman and his agent told the club he wanted to play Champions League football.
The club are looking to lay down a marker with agents and sellers after feeling many targets have been overpriced. “PIF is a sensible investment fund. There are funds but they don’t splash the cash unnecessarily – it’s a message that will get through to people,” the source said.
The Magpies want to recruit a second striker of the window – the club are negotiating with Stade Reims over 19-year-old forward Hugo Ekitike, dubbed the “new Kylian Mbappe” after scoring 8 goals in 20 games in his first season in top flight football.
Liverpool false positive explanation?
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp courted controversy with claims that the club returned a high number of false positives that led to the cancellation of last week’s League Cup game against Arsenal.
Two rounds of testing led to the training ground being shut down following an outbreak. But a third round of testing led to the discovery of several “false positives” – which, given the specificity of the tests, was highly unusual.
One theory is that the third round of tests were carried out by Premier League supplier Prenetics, the gold standard of Covid testing used by the league since the start of the pandemic.
Klopp defended his Sunday statement in the run up to the Gunners match.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3K5x6tv
Post a Comment