The Hype Is Real

Welcome to The Hype Is Real where we break down the latest news, stories & happenings around sports & web3.

In the past couple of months, I've had the opportunity to connect with a lot of interesting people in the web3 space.

Most of these conversations have been behind the scenes, but I thought it would be cool to highlight some of these people and what they're building to give you more perspective on how web3 ties into the future of the sports industry.

So... * drumroll * I bring you the Web3 Spotlight series where I'll be featuring innovators, creators, and builders at the intersection of sports x web3. 

This week we're featuring Dirk Lueth from Upland, which is the largest property-trading, city-building metaverse platform in the world. 

Right before the World Cup kicked off, they inked a multi-year partnership with FIFA that allows football fans worldwide to collect, trade, and own FIFA digital assets and game highlights.

We discussed how he started Upland, what the FIFA partnership entails and why he sees the metaverse playing a significant part in fan engagement over the next several years.

Check out the full convo below and would love to hear any feedback or suggestions on how we can make this better.

Appreciate you!!

Give us a little background on how you got into the web3 space. And even further than that, what Upland is for those who are not familiar with what you guys are doing and building?

Dirk Lueth: Sure, I'm Dirk Lueth, co-founder, and co-CEO of Upland. I am also the chair of the open Metaverse Alliance, OMA3, which is a consortium of all of the metaverses in this space. I'm originally from Germany but have lived in Silicon Valley for 14 years. I'm a big sports fan, so my co-founders, Mani Honigstein, Idan Zuckerman, and I had the idea for Upland while we were playing Monopoly one night. We said, "What if, we combined the idea of monopoly, blockchain, and the real world together?" And that's when our plan was basically born. In 2018, we incorporated under Upland.me. "Me" stands for metaverse. However, at that time, we were trying to avoid that word because no one knew what it was at the time. This has obviously changed in the last year or so. When we launched our plan, at the high level it was inspired by Monopoly. This means you could buy properties, which are based on the actual parcels. We are currently in 20 cities in the US, plus Porto in Portugal and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, where you can purchase properties in those cities and start earning limited income, and then you can compete very much like Monopoly. So the game mechanics are very similar.

Can you discuss how Upland has evolved from that initial idea?

Dirk Lueth: Upland is becoming more of a platform for four different groups. The first group is the players who can become entrepreneurs and sell digital goods to other players. For instance, they can sell digital, in-game items, they can sell game pieces, etc... We also have a partnership with the NFL Players Association, and they can sell those items and buy, and resell them to other players. That's the first group. The second group is what we call the creators, who are the people that are more on the creative side. They can create and design items, and so on. Those are integrated right into the platform. The third group is what we call the developers. We just launched a developer platform where people can develop their own apps and experiences on top of Upland, which makes it very interesting, and compelling. Lastly, we have the fourth group which is the brands. We're mainly working with lots of sports brands right now and of course, the most recent announcement we had was last week with FIFA.

There's a lot of talk around the metaverse these days such as what it is and what it isn't. In your own words and definition, how do you describe the metaverse?

Dirk Lueth: Yeah, it's a great question. I always get asked that. I actually wrote a book about it called, "Navigating the Metaverse." We have been asked that question many times so I wrote a book with Cathy Hackl and Tommaso Di Bartolo from Berkeley. Cathy Hackl is called the godmother of the metaverse so we sat down together, and we had to write something to explain it and we're quite happy now it's one of the bestsellers on Amazon. So when people ask me, I try to make it simple. I always say the metaverse is like a parallel world, where you assume one or multiple identities. Where anything you imagine can exist and where you can own things. I think the owning part sounds a little bit out there, but that's big, right? Because when you start owning things, you become creative, and you take better care of the things you own and we see that in our plan with Upland.

For a lot of people, the barrier to entry to the metaverse can be cumbersome when you think about purchasing a headset, or other hardware that might be required. How do you think about onboarding people into the space and getting people to engage in the virtual world?

Dirk Lueth: Yeah, that's an awesome question. So from day one, we asked, "We are people?" People are on mobile devices, right? So from day one, we said we want to be mobile first. So that's why we have an iOS and Android app. We make it super accessible for everyone. And then we also said, "Okay, most of the people, they don't want to deal with private keys, wallets, or pass-phrases." If they lose their password, they still want to call someone or at least write an email. So that's the reason why you only need a password and email to sign up. We handle the rest of the complicated blockchain stuff. The third thing is most people might not even have cryptocurrency. So in Upland, you can use in-app purchases which are obviously bought with dollars or credit cards. We do allow crypto payments, of course, but you don't have to, which makes it super simple for users to onboard. The consequence of all of this is that we are growing much faster than all the other metaverses right now. We have over 300,000 landowners. When you take all the others together, we're five times larger than they are. You probably read less about us in the news because another aspect is that we are very inclusive. In other metaverses' you always read, "This has been bought for $5 million for $8 million," but we have to face it, who can afford that, right? We want to go after a mass audience. We want to be inclusive. This means you can purchase a piece of land for $2 or $4. So it's much easier and accessible to a broader audience.

You talked a little bit about ownership and the importance of that. Can you take that a step further and talk about the advantages from a consumer standpoint of owning digital land, digital assets, and other virtual products?

Dirk Lueth: So first of all, the operator cannot take it away from you. That's the first thing. If I'm in an enclosed and not blockchain-based metaverse, the operator can say, "You know what... I don't like so and so. Let's just take everything away from them." They can do that if they want, but we cannot do this which creates a certain security. When you own things, it's very much like in real life. When you own a house, you take care of it, but when you rent a house not so much because you know you're gonna leave. It's the same kind of psychology, which plays into it here. Then of course when you own stuff, you can wear the stuff you own, and you can demonstrate it so it also represents some kind of status.

Getting back to the FIFA partnership. Can you talk about the significance of this partnership, and some of the features and benefits that fans will be able to receive with the World Cup?

Dirk Lueth: So first of all, it's a multi-year agreement, which is starting out in Qatar, and next year the woman's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. I know that Americans are not that deep into soccer, but the rest of the world goes crazy during those weeks. We are trying to replicate that same idea. We have a campaign that we call, "Own your Colors," because when I would be in Germany, France, or wherever, I saw people customizing their homes, and their cars with their country flags and what have you. We want to replicate that in the metaverse. So the first thing that you can do is own your colors and show your colors to the rest of the world. Then we have some auto-gamification elements where people can purchase packs. In those packs, they find interesting 3D assets, like a pair of cleats, a scarf, or something like that. They can also get game passes. The idea is that they have to complete collections, and they have to actually play and trade with other players. Then if they have a good fan score, they can stand in line virtually to apply for very rare mementos. For instance, the ball of the final game or something. We also have the rights to the video highlights so when someone scores a goal or when there is a red card or something, people will be able to get that highlight. Even though they have to wait a little bit because there's a certain embargo from FIFA on top of it, but people can still get those video highlights.

You talked a little bit about your partnership with the NFLPA. Are you guys looking to expand into other sports right now?

Dirk Lueth: Yeah, we are. Aside from the NFLPA, we have a sports club in Portugal, but we won't announce other soccer partnerships until after the World Cup. We're also talking to other sports franchises as well, but we have to find good use cases for each of those. Upland is a place where people come together. They have common interests. There's a high overlap of sports because if you're a fan of a club, that's where there's a very similar type of behavior, and that's the reason why it fits so well together.

With the recent news around FTX, and some of the skepticism that we're seeing around web3 and the industry as a whole, how do you stay optimistic about continuing to build in the virtual world and building out products for consumers?

Dirk Lueth: Of course, I cannot speak for FTX and I don't want to comment on that. I mean it's unfortunate. That's all I can say. My issue is that people are throwing everything into one basket right now. It's a centralized exchange. With the metaverse and web3, it's not getting differentiated, which of course is not good. However, we have to go through that. Going forward, we will continue to build and Upland is so different at the end of the day. We're not a centralized exchange. We run a metaverse that gives new opportunities to people. And in some countries, people can even earn money with Upland by producing goods instead of earning through a daytime job. So there's so much more opportunity, and I'm very optimistic. Once people understand that even better, they will hopefully forget the whole incident around FTX and focus on the stuff which brings value.

Looking 10 years down the line, as mass adoption hopefully takes place, where do you see Upland when it comes to fan engagement and fans being able to interact within the virtual world?

Dirk Lueth: Our hope, especially when it comes to fan engagement, is becoming an integral part of the fan experience. What I mean is that if you're a fan, maybe you do something before the game such as meet with other people, socialize with them in the virtual coffee shop, or you exchange some of your merchandise or whatever, right?  Maybe because you have a certain NFT, you get into a VIP room in the stadium or do other exclusive things. You can imagine lots of stuff, but it's happening during the game virtually and also physically, and then after the game. Maybe you take the pieces you have earned and put them in your shop, and so on and so forth. However, the lines between the physical and digital world will be more blurred going forward.

Lastly, please let people know where they can access Upland and find more information about what you guys are building.

Dirk Lueth: You can download Upland from the app store. Otherwise, you can visit www.upland.me where you can also sign in and play from there from your desktop or follow us on Twitter @UplandMe.

Thanks for reading!!

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