Former Liverpool CEO Peter Moore predicts a revolution for football as it starts moving to an interactive, virtualised world

Peter Moore, the former Liverpool CEO, has outlined a vision for the future of football in which interactive content, multiple data points and deeply personalised experiences will transform almost every aspect of a club’s operations.

Moore, who was at the helm at Anfield for three years from June 2017 to August 2020, when it won the Premier League, Champions League, and Club World Cup, is now senior VP and general manager, sports & live entertainment at the American company Unity, which he joined in January.

The San Francisco-based business, which was founded in Denmark, is well-known in the gaming world for its video game technology.

The company has over recent years evolved to provide a platform for creating and operating interactive, real-time 3D (RT3D) content. This is used by game developers, as well as other creators, such as artists, architects, automotive designers and filmmakers, to visualise their ideas.

Moore, who prior to joining Liverpool was president of EA Sports, where he oversaw the delivery of FIFA, has been appointed by Unity to help it break into the sports and entertainment market.

The British-American has led the development of Unity Metacast, a new RT3D sports platform for creating and delivering interactive content direct to the fan.

The platform, launched this week, uses volumetric technology, which allows real-world content, from moving people to static objects, to be experienced in 3D. The content can then be viewed from any angle, in real-time, giving audiences the ability to see every detail as if they were in the action themselves.
 

‘Impossible camera angle’

Unity is working with mixed martial arts organization UFC on research and development of potential applications for Unity Metacast within UFC content.

Moore showcased the innovation to delegates at the Leaders Week sports business conference in London this week, and speaking to Off The Pitch following his presentation, he says that Unity is already in conversation with a number of clubs, leagues and federations in football about using the platform, as well as across several other sports.

He reveals that much of the initial interest lies in how the technology can help teams gain an edge, through data analytics to improve performance or prevent injury, but suggests the application of 3D content in this way could also soon help the game engage with younger fans more successfully, as it can provide an interactive second screen experience to complement the live broadcast.

Moore demoed the Unity Metacast platform for a UFC fight, showing how a fan would interact with it from multiple angles, including through the eyes of one of the fighters, for instance – what Moore describes as an “impossible camera angle.”
 

A quantum leap

And he explains that in football, fans could potentially experience moments like Mo Salah’s stunning solo effort against Manchester City last weekend from Salah’s perspective, and with the ability to pause the action and move around to see different angles, all via their iPad or phone, during the game.

Users could also get in-game stats, click on a player to read his bio – and even find out what type of boots they are wearing and purchase those with one tap of a button.

“This is a quantum leap, and in 30 years from now people will wax lyrical about when football went from 2D to 3D,” Moore asserts, adding that this shift is a million miles from the Arsenal v Manchester United clash in 2010 that became the world's first broadcast of a match in 3D, with fans wearing 3D glasses in pubs.

He adds that Unity Metacast has potential applications for sports organisations in creating more meaningful and impressionable marketing campaigns; officiating – allowing penalty decisions, for instance, to be seen in 3D; and for broadcasters to enhance their analysis.
 

Threat and opportunity

During his time as Liverpool CEO Moore described the online video game Fortnite as posing the greatest threat to football’s appeal among young viewers, and while he still believes esports and gaming are creating major challenges, he argues that if football can use video game technology and how young people interact with it to its advantage, it will be in a far better place.

“Through video game imagery, young men and women are now used to being able to spin the camera, to go into a replay and look at a goal with an impossible camera angle, because it's about data points in a video game as well – it’s not a physical piece of camera hardware,” he says.

“So from that perspective, I think this gives you a lot to Generation Z to bring them back in, because they're seeing the sport in the way that they've been used to seeing it.”
 

The metaverse revolution

Moore goes on to argue that 3D content will become central to almost all elements of how football clubs work.

He says that at the heart of the revolution of football, along with many other industries, will be the ‘metaverse’, a concept Moore frequently returns to. The term refers to shared, 3D virtual spaces that directly replicate the real world.

“My job is to focus on how we bring real-time 3D to life through the metaverse and this idea of an always-on world and always-present world that has spatial awareness of who we are, what we're doing, what our temperature is, what direction we're heading in, and so on,” he explains.

“This is key to the future we have to think about in the world of sport.”

Moore asserts that this could be transformative for football clubs and leagues as it would take the volume and quality of data they have at their fingertips to an entirely new level, creating a 24/7 connection with fans, leading clubs to acquire, engage with and monetise fans far more effectively.
 

Digital-only ticketing at Anfield

Moore says clubs such as Liverpool, which moved to digital-only ticketing through the use of NFC (near field communication) technology during Moore’s time at the club, have already begun to embrace the concept.

“The reason we went to NFC at Liverpool was we had no idea whatsoever who was in the stadium,” he recalls.

“From a security perspective, and to serve our fans better, we needed to know who's in the stadium and who's in those seats.”
In the future, as clubs learn far more about each individual fan, Moore says they will be able to engage with them at far more personalised level.

“The spatial web sees you, it knows you, it recognises you, it offers you commercial opportunities. It sees you walking up Wembley Way and says, hey, John, you're about to go and watch Spurs, or England and would you like Harry Kane's jersey? We know you're an extra-large or large, and we know your address, and we’ve got your credit card number. And you just swipe on your phone,” he says.

“So I think football clubs have a huge opportunity in the metaverse because you start to virtualise your engagement with your fans.”

While Moore concedes that such a scenario remains some way off for now, he reveals that the next stage for Unity is to carry out deeper testing of the Unity Metacast platform within the game.

“Ultimately we'll sit down and start talking to fans about what they see, and we'll do that through potential customers – broadcasters, clubs, leagues, federations,” he concludes.