The National Football League is partnering with Roblox Corp RBLX on a metaverse experience and live virtual concert ahead of Super Bowl LVII. The partnership follows a deal between the NFL and Roblox before last year’s Super Bowl.
What Happened: The NFL announced it will host a free virtual concert starring hip-hop artist Saweetie 7 p.m. ET on Feb. 10, 2023. The concert is presented by Intuit INTU. The concert will re-air every hour on the hour until Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023.
The concert will take place in the Warner Music Group’s Rhythm City, a new music themed area of Roblox that was announced earlier this week by Warner Music Group WMG.
Saweetie’s concert will be family-friendly, according to the NFL, and feature a “fully motion-captured performance” of her hit songs.
“I’m really excited to bring this iconic moment to the metaverse and share my music with a whole new audience in such a unique way! As an artist, innovator and football fan, to be able to perform during Super Bowl LVII weekend in this new world — Rhythm City on Roblox — is something I never imagined that I would be involved in,” Saweetie said.
Along with the virtual concert, the NFL is launching Super NFL Tycoon Feb. 4. The new experience follows up on 2022’s NFL Tycoon and is sponsored by Intuit.
“The NFL’s latest experience on Roblox will allow millions of users to live the fantasy of being an NFL team owner and practice important financial and business skills with Intuit’s help,” the NFL said.
Players will create a stadium, draft a team and manage items like cash flow, payroll taxes and customer acquisitions.
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Why It’s Important: Roblox had 61.5 million daily active users in the month of December and continues to be one of the most played games in the world.
Roblox said it hopes to unlock “deeper fan engagement” with the Roblox partnership and virtual concert. Several virtual items will be unlockable to people who take part in the concert, which could boost engagement for the NFL.
Companies like Nike Inc NKE, Spotify and Sony have partnered with Roblox to increase engagement on products and potential appeal to a younger demographic.
The NFL is one of several sports leagues that has bet on future fan growth through the metaverse and the launch of non-fungible tokens. The league partnered with Dapper Labs to launch NFL All Day NFTs where fans can own video moments and compete in fantasy football-style challenges.
With all eyes on the NFL for Super Bowl LVII, Roblox investors are likely hoping the virtual concert and NFL games bring new players to the game and keeps gamers more engaged.
The Super Bowl Halftime Show remains one of the key events of the big game and could see a bigger focus with Apple Music, a unit of Apple Inc AAPL, taking over as the sponsor of the event. Rihanna is the halftime performer for this year's Super Bowl.
RBLX Price Action: Roblox shares are down 1% to $40.02 on Friday versus a 52-week trading range of $21.65 to $73.71.
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