Australian Open Serves Up NFTs Linked to Live Matches

Tournament director Craig Tiley described the collection as “an opportunity to be part of the 2022 Australian Open in a way never before available.”

article-image

The Australian Open Art Balls NFTs. Source: Australian Open

share

key takeaways

  • The NFTs will be minted on Ethereum
  • The Australian Open plans to stream a virtual tennis tournament in Decentraland

The Australian Open (AO) appears likely to have to make do without world no. 1 Novak Djokovic after the tennis star was refused entry into the country due to COVID restrictions on Wednesday. But the winning shots of those who do compete later this month will be featured in a collection of 6,776 “Art Balls” NFTs as a part of an initiative to “be the first grand slam to enter the metaverse.”

Tournament director Craig Tiley described the non-fungible token (NFT) collection as “an opportunity to be part of the 2022 Australian Open in a way never before available.”

“The AO has always been seen as one of the most innovative sporting events in the world and this project is just another example of our team pushing the boundaries to provide our fans with better access and engagement with the AO,” Tiley said in a statement. 

The NFTs, a digital collectible that verifies ownership on the blockchain, will be linked to live tournament data, according to the AO.

Each NFT’s metadata will be linked to a plot of a tennis court surface in the real-life tournament. If the winning shot from a match in the AO lands on that plot, the NFT metadata will be updated in real-time to reflect the match’s outcomes, according to marketing materials sent to Blockworks.

The AO will also stream the tournament in the 3D virtual reality platform Decentraland beginning on Jan. 17. Users will be able to explore a digital replica of the AO.

“We want the AO to be the world’s most accessible and inclusive sports and entertainment event, and with the unique challenges fans have faced getting to Melbourne we’ve fast-tracked our launch into the Metaverse,” Ridley Plummer, a project manager at Tennis Australia, said in a statement. 

The Art Balls NFT collection goes on sale Jan. 13. The AO begins on Jan. 17.

This story was updated on Jan. 6, 2022, at 2:45 AM ET.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Unlocked by Template (7).png

Research

Union’s improvements upon Tendermint consensus through CometBLS, coupled with ZK proving through Galois, allow for a broadly scalable, cost efficient, and low latency IBC implementation that is feasibly scalable across every existing blockchain, virtual machine and runtime. The implementation offers modular crosschain interoperability without the need for trusted intermediaries.  

article-image

The drop gives buyers Adidas outfits for their in-game characters, but the game hasn’t fully released yet

article-image

In 1999, Daniel Bernstein fought for code to be protected, just like free speech

article-image

Sentora aims to create an ecosystem focused on institutional investors’ DeFi needs

article-image

Using Bitcoin as a model, Vitalik’s new priority for Ethereum is technical simplicity

article-image

Solana leaders privately told validators to upgrade their software