Stella Artois teams up with digital horse racing platform in new campaign

In a first for a global beer brand, Stella Artois UK has joined forces with premium digital horse racing platform Zed Run to mark the start of racing season.

The brand will auction fifty rare NFT racehorses, complete with five limited edition Stella Artois inspired skins.

Coinciding with the busiest part of the UK’s summer racing season, the racehorses will be auctioned off between 15 and 19 June, giving racing fanatics the chance to collect, trade, race, and even put the ‘thoroughbreds’ to stud, all in the Zed Run metaverse which is built on the Ethereum blockchain.

Virtual horse racing is rapidly growinge within esports, with some NFT digital racehorses now being sold for over £100,000 a pop. NFTs or ‘Non-Fungible Tokens’ are commonly powered by the Ethereum blockchain – which allows users to have total ownership of their digital racehorse (NFT) and accrue real earnings through racing, breeding and putting horses to stud, replicating the real world of championship horse racing.

Alongside the auction, Stella Artois will also be unveiling a first of its kind branded 3D racetrack where Zed Run players will come together to race their horses in the uniquely designed ‘Racing in the Life Artois’ metaverse.

“As one of the biggest sponsors of premium sporting events, Stella Artois has partnered with leading digital horse racing platform ZED RUN to offer an online equivalent to esports fans,” commented Lindsey McInerney, global head of technology and innovation at AB InBev.

“With our virtual experiment, “Racing In The Life Artois”, we’re bringing the art and elegance of Stella Artois and its “The Life Artois” platform to a new audience, offering players the chance to buy, race, and breed their very own NFT thoroughbreds in a ‘metaverse’ that replicates the real world of championship horse racing.”

The auctions will take place on OpenSea, the world’s first and largest NFT marketplace for digital collectibles. Ten digital art pieces, ten racehorses and ten ‘Life Artois’ inspired skins will be auctioned per day for five days with consumers having the chance of owning one of the rare race horses when auctions go live.

Each limited edition NFT collection will feature 10 assets. These assets will be presented in visual art form and are made up of three unique NFTs packaged together: 1 x NFT Stella Artois Art Piece, 1 x Genesis racehorse NFT (the most rare breed) and 1 x Stella Artois branded skin NFT.

This latest move follows Stella Artois’ recent Stella Tips campaign when the brand launched its first NFTs, generating funds to Licensed Trade Charity, and is part of Budweiser Brewing Group UK & Ireland’s move to replicate their position as one of the leading sponsors of sport, in the digital sporting metaverse.