USA Law and Practice Contributed by: Irwin A. Kishner, Daniel A. Etna, Joel Wagman and Barry Werbin, Herrick, Feinstein LLP
Sponsors Sponsors continue to explore the opportunities in the metaverse. One potential advantage for sponsors is that they can do much of the same thing that they do in the real world, but more cre - atively and at a lower cost. For example, brands can host an event where the fans’ virtual ava - tars can engage with the brand, and even their favourite athletes, in the metaverse. While virtual real estate does have costs in the metaverse, it is likely lower than renting out a physical building Athletes are training in the metaverse, simulating real game events at game time speed, but with - out the risk of injury. Virtual reality simulations can provide instant feedback and data to not only improve physical mechanics but also men - tal decision-making and strategy. For example, there are virtual reality headsets that can help train baseball players with their pitch recogni - tion (fastball, change up, curveball, etc) which is something that is typically difficult to train in real life. Legal The metaverse provides an interesting civil pro - cedure challenge: who has jurisdiction, and which law applies? Users from different countries (and in the USA, different states) can interact in the same virtual space. Or maybe even more fundamentally, what court would have author - ity to hear a case where a defendant’s physical location is different from where the harm occurs in the virtual world? in the real world. Sports Training
prior industrial revolutions, it is likely that exist - ing jobs will evolve and there will be an emer - gence of new job opportunities. As opportunities unfold, the regulatory framework will likely be
bolstered in response. 10.3 The Metaverse
The metaverse represents a tremendous devel - opment in how we interact with technology. With the use of virtual reality and augmented reality, the metaverse is a digital world that will allow people to have fully immersive lifelike experi - ences. As Mark Zuckerberg said, the metaverse is “the embodiment of the web where you are part of the experience yourself, not just looking at it…” . Sports Teams Sports teams continue to explore the metaverse, slowly implementing new and innovative tech - nologies that provide fans with a new way in which to consume sports. In a 25 September 2024 Major League Baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers, certain fans were able to attend and watch the game using avatars in a virtual stadium. Hawk eye cameras were able to translate the real-world action into the virtual reality stadium, where fans, through their virtual reality avatars, were able to watch the game inside the virtual stadium from unique points of view, such as being positioned on the field in the outfield itself. Additionally, the NFL and the Roblox platform continued their part - nership, working together to incorporate NFL intellectual property into NFL Universe Football allowing Roblox’s approximately 80 million daily active users to experience their favourite NFL team in the metaverse.
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