The Australian Open is set to dive right back into non-fungible tokens ahead of the world-renowned 2023 tennis tournament, launching a second collection of its immensely popular ‘AO ArtBall’ NFTs which now features a fresh new list of major Web3 collaboration partners.
The star-studded list of new collaborators include the popular NFT fundraising collective NounsDAO, virtual art gallery platform OnCyber, Gary Vaynerchuck’s Vayner Sports Pass and Australian wine producer Penfolds.
The AO Artball collection is one of Australia’s most successful and innovative NFT projects to be released by a major sporting league. When the first edition of the collection debuted last January, it quickly amassed more than 1,900 ETH (US$2.3 million at the time of writing) in total resale volume.
AO Artball
According to the team, the upcoming drop of 2,454 ArtBalls will add a new ‘Collaborator’ category that comes with a wide range of benefits from both ArtBall and each collaborator. The benefits of this new category will be announced during during the 2023 Australian open, with continued updates to emerge throughout the rest of the year.
It isn’t just Web3 and sporting partners either, the addition of wine-maker Penfolds pairs tennis and wine that will see ArtBall NFT holders gain access to premium experiences beyond the realms of sport and the metaverse.
Ridley Plummer, the Head of Web3 at Tennis Australia says that holders of the new collaborator series will gain access to “a series of ground-breaking offerings, artwork, premium experiences and real events.”
Holders of the collection’s first edition won’t be excluded from the action either, with all 6776 OG holders receiving 7-day passes to finals week as well as seeing their original NFT functionality remain live and connected to all of this year’s Australian Open matches.
NounsDAO are no strangers to big league sporting events, having joined forces with Bud Light last year to sponsor the beer company’s Super Bowl advertisement.
Nouns DAO member ‘Gami’ said that that he finds tennis to be incredibly “Nounish”; a term that refers to the ways that people can contribute and build together to make the world a better place. “The sports activations associated with ArtBall have been so much more innovative than anything else I’ve seen. I’m stoked to be contributing to such an iconic piece of sporting history.”
