Spain’s two biggest football clubs, Real Madrid and Barcelona, are putting aside their real-world rivalry to expand deeper into the metaverse.
A joint trademark application filed by the pair includes a cryptocurrency wallet, virtual reality software and sets out plans for simulated merchandise including clothing, footwear and headgear.
It's not the first move into the digital world for these galacticos of the football world.
Barcelona previously issued its own fan token that lets users have input into some club decisions.
With non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse a stated part of the Catalan club's expansion strategy, it launched its new Barca Studios division to home in on products in these spaces.
Barça then sold a large chunk of this new division to Socios.com for US$100mln.
Two years ago, Real Madrid partnered with NFT collectable company Sorare to offer player collectables, and, a year later, it revealed it would issue ‘smart tickets’ via NFTs.