The Australian Open was the first Grand Slam to truly enter the metaverse, with the minting of the AO Art Ball NFTs linked to live match data, giving people around the world a unique opportunity to own a piece of the AO.

As part of the AO Metaverse project 6,776 AO Art Ball NFTs were minted for the almost one billion global viewers the AO attracts, making this a monumental opportunity to forever own a piece of AO2022.

Each AO Art Ball’s metadata was linked to a 19cm x 19cm plot of a virtual tennis court. If the winning shot from any of the 400+ AO matches landed on that plot, the NFT metadata was updated in real-time to highlight the match information.

Additionally, the NFTs now have utility such as limited-edition wearables, AO merchandise, and other benefits in the future.

Combining real-time court data with NFTs had never been attempted before and provided an incredible way for global tennis fans to engage with the AO. This first-of-its-kind NFT was made possible by official match and ball-tracking data from AO matches. Within the collection were 22 AO Legend designs handcrafted from historical AO artwork, including the “Serving Man” silhouette, first introduced in the 1997 Australian Open.

The AO Art Balls also included over 100 NFTs from the AO Artist Series including designs from local and international artists, specifically created for AO 2022.