Over the past 24 months just about every sport has started testing the waters of Web3 and the Metaverse. From NBA Top Shots, to Socios Fan Tokens, to Man City’s launch of their virtual stadium and so many more. But one of the first and most successful big sporting events to step into the space and show us what’s made possible by mixing Metaverse, NFTs and live sports was the Australian Open. To learn more about their approach I spoke with Ridley Plummer. Ridley has what I believe must be a dream job in that he is responsible for NFTs, Metaverse and Web3 for Tennis Australia. The Australian Open was in January this year meaning he’s had time to consider the learnings from that event and he was kind enough to share many of his thoughts. SPECIFIC TOPICS: In our conversation, Ridley shares details about what sounded like an epic journey to concept, develop and launch simultaneously in Decentraland and with NFTs for the Australian Open 2022. Specifically we spoke about: What they developed and launched in DecentralandThe idea and ambition behind the AO Artball NFT projectThoughts on what makes a web3 and metaverse project successfulThe role of storytelling in developing a projectThe role of a virtual world as a complement to a live event – spoiler alert – it’s not just to recreate the same activities you can experience offline in the virtual spaceThe role of community and how the Web3 and the sports communities came together.Other sports moving into the spaceThe opportunity for brands and the lessons that we can all take And of course I tried to get him to spill on plans for 2023 … LINKS TO OTHER PROJECTS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE AO Artball - https://ao.artball.io/NBA Top Shop - https://nbatopshot.com/The Otherside - https://otherside.xyz/Nike - https://opensea.io/collection/rtfkt-nike-cryptokicksGucci - https://vault.gucci.com/en CREDITS Host: Justin Peyton Guest: Ridley Plummer