For Wimbledon 2022, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) paired up with Roblox to create an immersive 3D game called ‘WimbleWorld’ to celebrate 100 years of the venue’s iconic Centre Court and to engage a new, young generation of tennis fans.
By marking the historic arena’s century within an early metaverse platform, the tournament is not just aiming to attract a youthful, primarily under-18 audience, but also to connect them to its sponsors and partners.
WimbleWorld on Roblox offers fans a chance to play against their friends on a virtual version of Centre Court, as well as giving avatars a chance to collect rewards redeemable in a virtual Wimbledon store. These rewards include limited edition items from the Wimbledon Ralph Lauren 2022 Collection and Andy Murray’s 2022 AMC cap which users can dress their virtual selves in both within WimbleWorld and in other Roblox worlds. Players can also meet a virtual Andy Murray within WimbleWorld.
Running in parallel with WimbleWord, 2022 also saw Wimbledon take over The Gang’s ‘Strongman Simulator’ game: one of the most popular experiences on the Roblox platform.
The immersive gaming-led experience was promoted through Roblox and Wimbledon digital and social channels, as well as through influencers and gamers.
Wimbledon has entered the metaverse. WimbleWorld on @Roblox allows fans to play virtual tennis on the hallowed grass of the All England Lawn Tennis Club. Fans will also be able to shop and follow matches via video highlights playing on screens located throughout WimbleWorld. pic.twitter.com/pc7r9CTYJn
— Jess Golden (@JGolden5) June 29, 2022
Wimbledon: WimbleWorld #Roblox experience has now released. You can now play tennis inside the #Roblox metaverse with your friends.
Play here: https://t.co/jiElE4ZbPG pic.twitter.com/1fu9QS3fpm
— RoBloxy_ | ️ (@RoBloxyNews_) June 21, 2022
FREE ITEMS: Win the #Roblox Wimbledon Cap by finding all 7 golden tennis balls hidden in the WimbleWorld experience.
Wimbledon Cap: https://t.co/KAJVtAl8qu
(Credits: @.LeaksEvents) pic.twitter.com/bdWgb6ZyHc
— RoBloxy_ | ️ (@RoBloxyNews_) June 21, 2022
While Wimbledon has a huge, existing global reach across multiple channels, teaming up with Roblox enables the tournament to reach an additional new, younger audience through the gamified experience.
“This year is the 100th year of Centre Court at Wimbledon. You’re talking about something that’s obviously had an enduring legacy of fans over the ages and through the generations. We’re looking ahead to the next generation of fans, and how we are going to keep them engaged beyond just watching the matches,” said Roblox Senior Director of International Communications James Kay.
“And so WimbleWorld is really meant to be a kind of additive experience for that under-18 audience. If you are interested in tennis and maybe starting to play for the first time, it’s a chance for them to engage with it in a way that feels natural to them.”
Kay also adds that there is a suite of other KPIs that the tournament and the metaverse platform are aiming to achieve together including measuring engagement levels and monetisation.
“Our mission is to ensure that the fans of tomorrow grow up loving Wimbledon just as much as the fans of today,” outlined AELTC Communications & Marketing Director Alexander Willis. “We are delighted to be making this a reality through WimbleWorld on Roblox, giving fans the chance to compete virtually on Centre Court. Thank you to all the team at Roblox and The Gang for making this vision a reality in our desire to reach the next generation of tennis fans, and to Andy Murray and Ralph Lauren for being a part of WimbleWorld in its first year.”
Comment
Well, we all knew it was coming….and here it is. Or rather, as the metaverse doesn’t actually really exist yet and this is an entirely virtual initiative, here it isn’t.
Ever since the Australian Open partnered with Decentraland for its 2022 metaverse activity at the start of the year, it was a sure thing that Wimbledon would join the sports properties jumping into the metaverse.
As with other most other mini metaverse sports experiences – from Turkish Airlines’ ‘Euroleague Land‘ to Degree’s ‘Metathon Marathon‘ – this kind of partnership offers opportunities to engage beyond the sporting action itself – including generating rights owner and partner revenue.
Thus far Roblox has 10 million creators and 26 million different experiences, but there is, of course, a huge amount of software development, launches, awareness-building and educational work to be done in order to ensure fans and brands can thrive in the much-discussed, but yet to become real world of the metaverse.
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