VR company Laduma launches exciting new partnership with LA Galaxy

Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy have teamed up with VR company Laduma to create unique VR content for fans.

The content itself is exciting for LA fans, featuring players such as Robbie Keane, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole and Nigel de Jong. It will give fans a chance to get closer to the players and their club by transporting the user into the LA Galaxy dressing room on matchday, or allowing users to get up close and personal (virtually) with their footballing heroes in a series of 360 degree VR videos.

Laduma CEO Ben Smith said: “At Laduma, we pride ourselves on working with the most iconic brands in the world. The LA Galaxy are not only synonymous with style and success within MLS, but they are also widely respected for being one of sport’s most forward-thinking, digitally savvy organizations. And so our partnership is about creating incredible content for one of the most digitally engaged audiences in professional sports.”

It’s the kind of content that makes you wonder why sports teams aren’t already doing it. The idea of using VR is a fairly new one, and sport is still trying to figure out how best to use it. Broadcasters are already getting in on the action, with NBC broadcasting some events at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in VR, but sports teams are still working out their own strategies.

“Immersive 360-degree viewing will allow our fans to experience the LA Galaxy like never before,” said LA Galaxy President Chris Klein. “We’re proud to be working with best-in-class partners like Laduma and our work together on this project demonstrates our desire to deliver the very best in innovation to our fans.”

But it’s also the type of content that teams can offer beyond VR that could be so good. They have the kind of access to their athletes that journalists can only dream of, and bringing fans closer to their heroes in their homes, dressing rooms, or in a quiet cafe for a downtime chat is the sort of content that gets fans excited.

And as well as the VR content, Laduma are also curating 2D content around the club which will bring news and interviews with key figures such as manager Bruce Arena and club President Chris Klein along with the players. Those videos will be made available throughout the season and on the LA Galaxy’s website as well as on Laduma’s site, whilst Laduma will also become the presenting sponsor of the Galaxy’s goal of the year award. The best goal will be picked by public vote at the end of the season.

This is one of the first major partnerships between a VR company and a sports team, and many within both the sporting and technology worlds will be watching keenly to see how well the content works and also how well it is received by fans.

On the whole, though, anything that allows fans extra access to players and different, creative content is going to be a winner. There’s a whole world out there to be explored for sports teams in terms of VR, but just the type of content – with added technological enhancement or not – needs to be explored further.

About author

Chris McMullan
Chris McMullan 831 posts

Chris is a sports journalist and editor of Digital Sport - follow him on Twitter @CJMcMullan_

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