To leverage Europe’s elite professional basketball tournament, the EuroLeague Final Four, title sponsor Turkish Airlines rolled out an activation programme spearheaded by a ‘EuroLeague Land’ metaverse experience and which also included a ‘Trophy & Rings’ NFT collection, branded FanZone activities, a Flight Time contest, plus club membership ticket awards.
Turkish Airlines first metaverse initiative, ‘EuroLeague Land’ was created with Spanish company VRM and offered fans a virtual, multi-user experience enabling them to create and customise their own avatar, dress up in the kit of their favorite Final Four team, play mini games to win prizes and exclusive access, chat with other EuroLeague fans, access exclusive events including a live concert, and earn virtual coins to unlock content.
To participate in the experience, an integrated digital-first campaign invited supporters were invited to visit euroleagueland.net via any mobile device, tablet or computer.
VRM has also created a collection of NFT rings for the Euroleague to honour the winning team. The collection was released after the tournament ended.
While hoops fans who attend Final Four games in person in Serbia had a chance to participate in several FanZone activities: such as basketball shooting games on mini courts, a ‘Jump & Dunk’ competition for the highest jump and longest hang-time for an award of 50,000 ‘Miles & Smiles’ club miles, plus a digital vending machine game offering winners coupons.
Turkish Airlines also offered ‘Miles & Smiles’ club members a chance to receive 4x miles for anyone booking a flight to tournament host city Belgrade through the airline’s Most Valuable Passenger promotion.
The global carrier also reprised its award-winning “Flight Time” competition which measures players’ time in the air following a jump. Run in collaboration with technology partner Hawk Eye Innovations, the measured time during the game is processed swiftly and then integrated into the live broadcast. The eventual tournament ‘Flight Time Champion’ was the player who stayed in the air for the longest during a single jump.
Other elements of the airlines Euroleague activation around the climax of the season included a Final Four arena ‘Fly Through’ experience of the Stark Arena in Belgrade (Serbia), a ‘Flight Time’ measurement mechanic, plus rights around the tournament MVP Award and a sustainability initiative with One Tree Planted, as well as a Fantasy Challenge.
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Here’s the #FlightTime Champion of 2022 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague: Chris Singleton!He earned the best flight time score with 2.413 seconds and won the 241.300 mil award.
To many more glorious journeys, congratulations!#TurkishAirlinesEuroLeague pic.twitter.com/un9BlbpKlQ
— Turkish Airlines (@TurkishAirlines) May 22, 2022
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2 days to go!"Flight Time" combines the spirit of basketball with the passion for aviation at Turkish Airlines @EuroLeague #FinalFour Stay tuned!#TurkishAirlinesEuroLeague pic.twitter.com/UZf6w3iAA7
— Turkish Airlines (@TurkishAirlines) May 17, 2022
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Here’s the MVP of Turkish Airlines @EuroLeague 2022 Final Four!Our Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Bolat presented the 1.000.000 Miles award from #MilesAndSmiles to Vasilije Micic. Congratulations! #TurkishAirlines pic.twitter.com/zOU96CQKmp
— Turkish Airlines (@TurkishAirlines) May 23, 2022
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Help us keep on planting trees with @EuroLeague and @onetreeplanted.Donate at https://t.co/RP7nBY2gzd! #GenerationRestoration #JUMPTOTHEPLANETCOURT #F4GLORY pic.twitter.com/uslcjkryON
— Turkish Airlines (@TurkishAirlines) May 17, 2022
Thank you for playing the Fantasy Challenge!
We'll be back soon with a lot of news…stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/yZldwy1k9z
— Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) May 26, 2022
“We are thrilled to be, once again, the title sponsor of the prestigious EuroLeague Final Four,” commented Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee Professor Dr Ahmet Bolat. “Sporting competitions of this caliber reflect the dedication, camaraderie and passion that is crucial to achieve the ultimate success. These qualities mirror Turkish Airlines’ spirit and mission to be the leading global airline that reunites people, countries and cultures around the world. We wish the very best to all the teams competing with all these values over the next couple of days and we are excited to reconnect fans globally.”
Euroleague Basketball CEO Jordi Bertomeu added: “Our mission is to deliver an incredible fan experience, full of emotion, bringing people together around one passion, basketball. That is why it is of paramount importance that we celebrate with the fans who will come to Belgrade, and also with those who will follow the Final Four from home,” states Jordi Bertomeu, Euroleague Basketball CEO. “I would like to show my gratitude to all our media partners and sponsors, with a special mention to Turkish Airlines. Thank you for standing with us even in the most difficult times.”
“NFTs are all the rage among sports fans and collectors of all kinds and we knew that partnering with VRM to launch the ‘Trophy & Rings’ collection would offer our fans a perfect way to honor the 2022 champion,” explained EuroLeague Director Of Development Roser Queralto.
“We could not be more proud to expand our collaboration with the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague”, commented VRM CEO Juan Marí Guillot . “It is a great opportunity to work together as we have endless potential to develop amazing digital assets and unique experiences around the competition. We have just created a new category of experiential NFTs and there is still much more to come », he explains.
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After the 2022 Final Four tournament is completed, VRM will redesign the metaverse experience for the new 2023 EuroLeague Regular Season as the next stage in a four-year collaboration.
The sponsor’s metaverse activation was part of the EuroLeague’s digital transformation plan: the rights owner’s commitment to offering fans creative new experiences linked to basketball.
The European hoops season climax took place between 19 and 21 May and saw the continent’s best four teams – Real Madrid (Spain), FC Barcelona (Spain), Anadolu Efes Istanbul (Turkiye) and Olympiacos Piraeus (Greece) – compete for the championship in the 15,000 capacity Stark Arena in Belgrade (Serbi).
The 2022 tournament saw Belgrade join Barcelona, Madrid, Berlin and Istanbul as the only cities to host the event more than once this century.
It was back 2010 that Turkish Airlines and Euroleague Basketball announced a €15m agreement to sponsor Europe’s elite basketball competition globally: the tie-up began in the 2010/11 season and saw the competition renamed ‘Turkish Airlines Euroleague Basketball’.
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