The Verizon Media subsidiary of American telecommunications conglomerate Verizon Communications Incorporated has announced the signing of a deal to develop innovative virtual reality experiences in partnership with prominent iGaming and sportsbook operator Entain.

The New York-headquartered firm behind the Yahoo! and AOL online brands used an official press release to declare that the arrangement is to see it collaborate with the company formerly known as GVC Holdings so as to produce ‘a first-of-its-kind highly immersive proof of concept virtual reality experience’ covering sports and gambling. The behemoth stated that this innovation will moreover ‘combine live sports viewing with interactive layers of sports data and gaming’ in order to allow aficionados to ‘participate in sports events, check data, socialize with friends and place bets’ utilizing platforms from Entain.

Compound channels:

Verizon Media explained that London-listed Entain is responsible for the BetMGM sportsbetting platform in the United States via a partnership with land-based casino operator MGM Resorts International as well as the popular PartyPoker, Bwin and Ladbrokes brands. It also pronounced that it will now look to utilize emerging technologies such as ‘augmented reality’ and 5G data transmission bandwidths ‘to bring the best experiences in immersive content and gaming to sportsbetting and gambling.’

Augmented appeal:

Guru Gowrappan serves as Chief Executive Officer for Verizon Media and he used the press release to detail that this new collaboration builds on an earlier American deal that saw Entain integrate the BetMGM sportsbetting service into his firm’s own Yahoo! Sports platform. He additionally proclaimed that the partnership could soon allow punters to live stream a multitude of sporting and gambling events with the added attraction of ‘being in the stadium, participating in play, competing and betting on outcomes.’

Read a statement from Gowrappan…

“This new alliance takes the collaboration between our two companies to a new level and will allow us both to maximize new opportunities across sportsbetting, content and entertainment. Together, we are building the next-generation of content experiences for sports and gaming fans. Our world-first 5G-enabled production studios in Los Angeles and London, creative technology teams and immersive platform, which enable extended reality content to be created and distributed across digital channels at scale, allow partners like Entain to bring next-level immersive and interactive experiences to their customers.”

Focal faction:

For his part and Shay Segev, Chief Executive Officer for Entain, asserted that his company had conducted special research to determine that males aged between 25 and 39 are the most welcoming towards new technologies such as virtual reality across all markets. He declared that this demographic is furthermore ‘the key audience for eSports and gaming’ with these activities becoming increasingly converged and interactive ‘across multiple devices.’

Segev’s statement read…

“To win in the future we need to understand where consumers will be in five or ten-years’ time and work with other global businesses also investing in that. We envisage consumers meeting at a game with friends, who could in fact be elsewhere, using virtual reality headsets to watch, interact and share the experience together and, potentially, compete between themselves at half-time or feel like they’re on the pitch with the players.”