The IOC-recognized International Racquetball Federation (IRF), based in Colorado Springs, USA, has followed the IOC’s announcement of their Virtual Sports Series with a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate in developing Tel Aviv-based One Hamsa’s immersive virtual reality (VR) game Racket:Nx as a potential full Olympic Virtual Sport and an eventual candidate for the Olympic Games.
The IOC’s Virtual Sports Series includes five games which simulate cycling, rowing, baseball, sailing, and auto racing, but only two are physical games [for cycling and rowing] and presently none are immersive virtual reality.
IRF President Osvaldo Maggi said: “When we realized what this combination could mean not only for our federation, but for all of racquet sport, we jumped all over it. This will be a game-changer, for us and for world sport. We look forward to sharing so much more as this exciting partnership unfolds.”
Virtual Sports Association CEO Victor Bond, who brokered the deal, says: “This is a marriage made in future-sport heaven: a world-class developer and a unique, successful, and wonderful game, with a fully global international IOC-recognized sports federation, that has the vision and the grit to not just see around the corner but to go there.”
One Hamsa CEO Assaf “Usul” Ronen, added: “Racket:Nx is fully immersive and fully athletic, allowing players of all racquet sports – not only racquetball – to play full out inside a lighted, player-responsive, sound and music-filled dome, in a game that is blow-your-mind unique and engaging. The moves of all racquet sports are supported, except for those that would not work in the average living room or family room, like a racquetball dive or a clay court tennis slide.”
Ronen continued, “Racket:Nx has over 150,000 players on most VR platforms, including the fastest-growing VR headset, the Oculus Quest 2. That means that this game is more likely to achieve the mass acceptance that the IOC seeks. Racquet sports, it turns out, all together, maybe the largest sports category in the world, eclipsing even world football.”
With virtual reality hitting the mainstream with the Quest 2, and with the IOC ushering in the era of Olympic Virtual Sport, this trailblazing partnership is betting on the roles that immersive virtual sport will play in the mass adoption of VR and in the extension of the Olympic Games.
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For media enquiries, please contact:
Victor Bond, Virtual Sports Association, vbond@bondgroup.us.
Notes to editors:
– For more information on the IOC’s Virtual Sports Series:
https://olympics.com/ioc/news/international-olympic-committee-makes-landmark-move-into-virtual-sports-by-announcing-first-ever-olympic-virtual-series
– For more information on Racket:Nx:
www.racketnx.com
– For more information on the International Racquetball Federation:
www.internationalracquetball.com
– For more information on One Hamsa:
www.onehamsa.com
– For more information on the Virtual Sports Association:
www.virtualsportsassociation.com