Metaverse startup partners with music company

Metasport Arena, which is creating a virtual platform for sports enthusiasts and athletes to connect, has entered a new partnership that will bring music to its digital world. 

London-based music company Soundpickr, which leverages blockchain technology to solve legacy music royalty challenges, will integrate its music tech with Metasport Arena’s Sam Arena product, which the company claims will be the first sports and entertainment cryptocurrency-based metaverse.

“Soundpickr’s CEO reached out to us several months ago. We’ve been talking back and forth for some time,” said St. Petersburg resident Piotr Smeder, the co-founder and head of partnerships at Metasport Arena. “Once our metaverse is up and running, people can select their music preferences as they are walking through the environment.” 

Metasport Arena, founded in 2021 by Julien Sevat, has 15 to 20 employees scattered across the globe. The company’s Sam Arena product, which is under development, will allow players to build stadiums and venues and earn SAM tokens (digital currency). As part of the first release, the company will be launching football, baseball, basketball and soccer games. 

“We are completely bootstrapped and are not revenue-positioned yet, but we acquired a fantasy sports company and it’s now our big focus for Sam Arena,” Smeder said. 

Metasport Arena is also going through a graphic redesign that’s expected to be completed this year. 

“We are visually reimagining the website to be more web3 friendly,” he said. 

Smeder said there will be multiple potential revenue streams to tap from, including converting each sitting space in stadiums into NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and creating new engagement and revenue streams for clubs. The company can benefit from a profit-sharing model, digital marketing and sponsorships, land development and a full digital marketplace that would allow the company to receive a profit from any NFT sales.

“This has been our revenue strategy since Day 1,” Smeder said. “We are bringing other elements to Sam Arena such as yoga studios and restaurants. People usually go to bars after a game. We want this to be a 24-hour immersive environment beyond addition to the stadium focus.” 

He said the company is currently in talks with a Miami restaurateur to create a twin digital bar in Sam Arena. 

Earlier this year, Metasport Arena entered a partnership with Chicago-based web3 company Burrst.

Burrst has a niche in serving young athletes who can monetize their NIL (name, image and likeness) by providing them with global exposure and fan engagement through the web3 environment. 

Metasport Arena also started working with ESTV (Esports TV), which will stream the games played in Sam Arena.