Manchester United owners, the Glazer family, have reportedly expressed interest in making money through Augmented Reality (AR).
The English Premier League (EPL) club has reportedly started exploring AR as an opportunity to make money, which could see players wearing cameras in matches so that the club could sell the captured perspective to its supporters.
The owners are said to believe that the concept could generate huge sums of money by asking fans to pay a ‘small fee’ to access the footage, a concept that was tested by TNT Sports this season.
TNT Sports tried the idea in a game between Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers, in which a player from each team wore a camera during the warm-ups.
The technology involves players wearing a GPS vest that a camera is attached to, a small hole is then cut from the player’s kit so that fan’s can see the match through the player’s eyes.
Ed Woodward, former CEO at Manchester United, was supposedly one of the main backers of the idea. A source told ESPN: “The technology is already out there whereby a player could have an AR wearable on his body and a supporter anywhere in the world could pay a small fee to experience a game through the eyes of his favourite player.
“Just imagine how much United could generate from their huge global fanbase if supporters were able to pay to be Marcus Rashford or Bruno Fernandes for 90 minutes?”
The concept is yet to be confirmed by Manchester United, however the idea has been trialled in other leagues around the world and could soon be a new viable option for EPL clubs to make money and engage with fans.
