Upland, a platform for the metaverse mapped to the real world, and the Portuguese professional sports club FC Porto, Portugal’s 2022 Primeira Liga Champions, recently announced a strategic agreement to launch European football in Upland.
‘yahoo!finance’ stated that as the first Portuguese football club to bring the roar of the stadium into the metaverse, FC Porto is pioneering fan engagement and empowering the communities of FC Porto and Upland to participate in new types of value creation and experiences. With this agreement, the two partners are joining forces to build the future of fandom in the metaverse.
Upland (https://www.upland.me/) is an open web3 platform mapped to the real world. The company’s mission is to build community through a strong entrepreneur economy that allows players, developers and brands to manufacture goods and experiences, monetize assets and build utility into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) through fun earn-based activities. Headquartered in Silicon Valley (US) with hubs in Las Vegas, Ukraine and Brazil, Upland was named among Fast Company’s ‘Next Big Things in Tech’ in 2021 and one of ‘22 San Francisco Startups To Watch in 2022’ by Built In SF. Upland is committed to becoming carbon negative and is a proud partner of Carbonfuture.
FC Porto or simply Porto is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto (Portugal). It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football.
Founded on September 28th, 1893, FC Porto hasn’t stopped growing since. At its core is the practice of football, but today, the club is multidisciplinary. With seven international titles, including two Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League, FC Porto is the most internationally successful Portuguese club, with an impressive count of domestic titles: Thirty national championships, 18 Portuguese Cups and 22 Supercups.
The Estádio do Dragão, inaugurated in 2003, is the home of FC Porto and has a capacity of 50,000 fans. The club has been led by the most titled President in the world of football, Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, since 1982.
In futurism and Science fiction, the metaverse is a hypothetical iteration of the Internet as a single, universal and immersive virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual reality and augmented reality headsets. In colloquial use, a metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection.
‘yahoo!finance’ further stated that the introduction of FC Porto to Upland includes opening the City of Porto with NFT properties mapped to their real world addresses that fans can purchase, the construction of FC Porto’s Estádio do Dragão (Dragon Stadium) and the launch of the first suite of NFTs of a European football club.
Unique to Upland, fans can collect common and rare NFTs via fun and engaging game mechanics and offer their NFTs in player-owned and operated shops located on their virtual properties throughout the metaverse. The first phase of the FC Porto rollout in Upland will happen during the 2022-2023 seasons.
A non-fungible token is a financial security consisting of digital data stored in a blockchain, a form of distributed ledger. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchain, and can be transferred by the owner, allowing NFTs to be sold and traded.
Said Dirk Lueth, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Upland, “We’re thrilled to welcome FC Porto as the first European football club to join the Upland metaverse. European football is a way of life – it’s something you eat, sleep and breathe – and for Portistas (FC Porto fans), being able to bring that passion with them to the metaverse is an unparalleled opportunity to deepen that fandom. With Upland, we are taking fans beyond transaction-centric NFT marketplaces into an activity-driven metaverse experience that engages them with the team and the football players they love.”
Said Idan Zuckerman, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Upland, “Upland is designed to give football fans more to do with their NFTs. Because FC Porto thinks and executes so strongly around innovative products, we can fully realize the functionality and utility of Legits – what our community calls NFTs – and empower users to enjoy unique experiences that support and demonstrate their fandom in completely new ways. Upland and FC Porto couldn’t be a better match. Porto is an incredibly innovative team and we’re excited to help them to engage with their fans in the metaverse.”
Added Tiago Gouveia, Marketing Director for FC Porto, “To say this is just another way we’re engaging with fans is an understatement. Being the first soccer club in the world to establish itself with its City, stadium, players, and fans in the metaverse catapult our brand to the cutting-edge in this arena. We’re always on the lookout for new opportunities and we won’t let the metaverse pass us by. This partnership is proof of that.”
Pedro Albuquerque, Head of International at FC Porto, added, “FC Porto’s international growth is made on many levels – and to think of the metaverse of the future is a mistake. It’s knocking at our door and we want to be on the right side of history. This new opportunity is exciting, especially as we’re the first in the entire soccer world, and I believe will bring our fans unique opportunities for interaction, literally creating a new world filled with Portismo!”
Upland is available to download for free on iOS, Android and the web, and can be played from anywhere in the world.
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