Through its partnership with Verizon Media, Entain will create a new virtual reality “sports club” entertainment experience which it believes will create “more multi-dimensional experiences” for players.
Due to pilot later this year, the VR muti-sports experience will be made available for free on the Oculus Quest 2 headset.
The VR experience, which Entain noted is the ‘first of its kind’, will enable customers to live stream football matches, build fantasy line-ups and play a range of different sports games.
“We continually offer our customers a wide range of innovative and exciting experiences, and VR is an exciting opportunity for us to innovate in new ways,” said Sandeep Tiku, Chief Operating Officer of Entain.
“The aim is to mix sports, entertainment and different types of immersive play in one product, giving customers a great mix of new, exciting stuff to enjoy.”
Players will be able to experience games both individually and with groups of friends. Customers will also be offered ‘immersive experiences’ with music and bands – a concept which reflects Entain’s commitment to ‘lead a new generation of interactive sports and entertainment’.
Tiku added: “We know consumers are looking for more multi-dimensional experiences, in which the ability to place a bet is only one of the ways they want to enjoy themselves.
“So we want to wow them and give them better experiences than they’ve ever had before – and at the same time also use our cutting edge technology to keep our players safe.”
The launch of the VR experience comes alongside the further development of Entain’s Advanced Responsibility and Care (ARC) strategy, which will move player protection from being reactive to a more personalised, proactive approach to safer gambling.
Initially launched in November 2020, ARC draws upon ‘behavioural play data’ to secure the industry’s most effective end-to-end customer protections and interactions by ‘providing new levels of protection and safeguards to every customer based on their personal risk profile’.
