Blink and you may have missed it. I certainly did. While watching today’s entertaining match between England and Netherlands, The FA and a sports production company implemented virtual sideline advertising boards that displayed different ads around the world than the real ones shown in the stadium.

The technology was so seamless that I didn’t notice it until a reader pointed it out. For those of us who watched the game on television or the Internet outside of Netherlands and the United Kingdom, we would have seen several different adverts on the boards that were set next to the sidelines. Astute observers would have noticed that the ads were for Asian companies such as Indovision (Indonesian pay TV service), Garuda Indonesia (Indonesian Airline), ANA (Japanese airline), Astro (Malaysian pay TV service), and NowTV (Hong Kong IPTV service). But those watching the game either in the stadium or on UK or Dutch TV would have seen ads for ING, PriceWaterHouse Coopers, Dutch State Lottery, etcetera.

If you watch the game on a rerun, you’ll notice that the main camera angle shows the ads for Asian companies. But when the field-cameras are used for close-ups and different angles, you’ll see the advertising boards used to promote Dutch companies. Meanwhile, the boards behind each goal featured advertisements of England and The FA sponsors. Watch the video highlights below to see what the spectators saw in the stadium as well as on UK and Dutch TV. And then compare that to what you watched on television.

Hats off to Input Media, the sports production company responsible for implementing the technology of virtually displaying ads over the ones in the stadium. This certainly opens the door to other opportunities moving forward for football associations and clubs to generate even more revenue from advertising. And it also sends a message in regards to where the most revenue potential is: Asia.