FIFA World Cup Qatar in the Metaverse and Web3 – Will it launch on Ethereum?

• FIFA forges a partnership with Upland to bring an immersive Metaverse experience for soccer fans in the FIFA 2022 tournament.
• Upland’s metaverse is likely to launch on the Ethereum blockchain due to the latter’s excellent interoperability features.

Upland, a sprawling web3 platform for the metaverse is teaming up with the world’s soccer governing body, FIFA for a multi-year partnership that will see the launch of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 on the metaverse.

According to a Wednesday statement, the new deal is aimed at helping fans familiarize themselves with the Metaverse and Web3.  Further, apart from helping fans travel virtually to Doha to support their favorite teams, the partnership will enable them “to collect, trade and own FIFA digital assets and game highlights”.

Furthermore, Upland will introduce a collection game for football fans alongside a limited number of mystery bundles as well as other virtual gifts which can be redeemed for real-world goodies such as FIFA branded boots, T-shirts, Official World Cup logos, and posters among others.

Fans can also take advantage of Upland’s 22 real-world cities to start their metaverse journey by acquiring and trading virtual properties that are based on real-world locations. There, they also have the opportunity to become metaverse entrepreneurs by displaying their FIFA world cup branded merchandise and selling them to other participants.

“For FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 a fully constructed replica of the Lusail Stadium alongside a FIFA World Cup branded village, shops, and showrooms, will be added to their real-world addresses in Upland which fans can visit virtually,” said Lindsay Aamodt, head of marketing at Upland.

Upland extending to the Ethereum network

The partnership comes less than two weeks before the widely anticipated FIFA tournament where 32 countries are represented. Last month, Upland, which is the world’s largest city-building and property-trading metaverse platform extended its metaverse to the Ethereum blockchain. There is thus a high likelihood that the FIFA-focused metaverse will launch on Ethereum given that it offers excellent interoperability features enabling easy movement of assets between platforms.

Commenting on the partnership, Dirk Lueth, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Upland said, “We’re excited to create a multi-touch web3 experience showcasing fun, innovation, entrepreneurialism, and community as the first of many opportunities in the future of FIFA World Cups, where fans can now collect, own, and share a real moment in history.”

Meanwhile, Upland isn’t the only project providing an immersive metaverse experience to fans in the FIFA tournament. Last month, FIFA picked Roblox Corp, another Web3 company to help it build a virtual world where football fans can hang out in social spaces, earn rewards and collect exclusive virtual items through various skill games and multiple collectors’ challenges during and after the tournament. In September, FIFA partnered with Algorand to launch a soccer-related digital collectibles NFT platform.