The dispute for the attention of the sports fan can already begin to add a new battlefield in its consumption formats: immersive experiences through designer glasses. Devices and content based on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), including metaverse, have been approaching the sports industry for years. Organizations such as the NBA began, as early as the middle of the last decade, to offer VR games that create the sensation of being in the stadium, even if the back of the seat is the armchair in our living room. But now there are major developments in the acceleration of these experiences.

ESPN just announced the addition of Meta as the fourth member of ESPN Edge, the innovation hub the leading sports company launched in February 2021 with Accenture, Microsoft and Verizon as partners in that innovation. ESPN Edge’s mission is to anticipate consumer trends. Or what’s more: to create those trends. Meta is now ESPN’s partner to bring an ESPN-branded virtual reality (VR) sports experience to Meta Quest, the goggles that Mark Zuckerberg claims are infinitely better than Apple’s.

The partnership between ESPN and Meta will feed two immersive platforms that are themselves showcasing the current evolution of this type of content: ESPN will offer highlights, programs and broadcasts for Xtadium, Meta’s free virtual reality app where NBA already offers live games from NBA League Pass and pay-per-view. UFC is also offering its fights on Xtadium.

The other content offer will be directly in the metaverse: ESPN will generate experiences for Meta Horizon Worlds, the space in which Meta has already been seeding users of this gamified environment for two years.

Of course, the other player in the battle is Apple. The whole world was talking a few weeks ago about the launch of Apple Vision Pro, the glasses that use spatial computing to offer its own immersive experience for whatever. Just as Meta seems to have taken ownership of the concept of “metaverse”, Apple tries to be the reference for spatial computing and terms such as metaverse, augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality do not appear in its technical glossary.

Apple Vision Pro, along with the launch of the Apple Sports app (a free app with information and data on Major League Soccer, Bundesliga,NBA, Liga MX, and soon MLB, NFL, NWSL, and WNBA) begin to shape what Apple did best throughout its history as a brand beloved by its fans and followers: build its own ecosystem as it did with the iPhone, iPad, Apple Music and Apple TV, among other closed environments.

The ten-year deal for the exclusive global rights to MLS, powered by Lionel Messi’s presence at Inter Miami, allows Apple to do trial and error on how to manage sports content that fans might be interested in. Apple Vision Pro will be the immersive experience environment for sports and in fact NBA and PGA have already designed custom products for that platform. And Apple Sports can be the gateway to that universe.

Meta understood that joining ESPN could be key to the development of this new sports television. Apple, as so many other times, seems to show that it is enough to go its own way.

The battle has just begun. It’s just a matter of sitting back and watching. The popcorn will be prepared by everyone.