In a partnership with Entain, an international sports betting and gaming operator, Verizon Media is looking to build a virtual reality experience that would amalgamate live sports and betting.
The proof-of-concept experience will let the users participate in sports events, socialize with their friends, analyze the trends, and place bets on Entain’s various platforms.
Entain CEO Shay Segev released a statement saying, “To win in the future we need to understand where consumers will be in five, ten years’ time, and work with other global businesses also investing in that.”
“We envisage consumers meeting at a game with friends, who could in fact be elsewhere, using virtual reality headsets to watch, interact and share the experience together and, potentially compete between themselves at half time or feel like they’re on the pitch with the players,” he added.
Verizon Media CEO Guru Gowrappan said, “This new alliance takes the collaboration between our two companies to a new level and will allow us both to maximize new opportunities across sports-betting, content, and entertainment.”
Talking about their contribution to the initiative, he added, “Together, we are building the next-generation of content experiences for sports and gaming fans. Our world-first 5G-enabled production studios in LA and London, creative technology teams, and Verizon Media’s Immersive platform, which enables extended reality (XR) content to be created and distributed across digital channels at scale, allow partners like Entain to bring next-level immersive and interactive experiences to their customers.”
With 5G technologies emerging across the globe, there is going to be an imminent need for companies to develop more immersive concepts through virtual and augmented reality. Entain and Verizon Media aim to curate such experiences for sports fans providing a virtual stadium environment and active participation in the games.
The partnership also adds another pillar to the existing collaboration between Yahoo Sports, part of Verizon Media, and BetMGM, a joint venture with MGM Resorts through which Entain operates in the United States. Yahoo Sports has integrated support for BetMGM, allowing the users to place a bet with BetMGM from within the Yahoo Sports app.
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