Table of Contents
Principal Lessons
- Sports organizations can gain from a new revenue source by releasing digital artefacts, while sports NFTs give devoted fans new and interesting opportunities to support their favourite teams.
- In addition to visiting live sporting events, fans can also communicate with athletes in virtual settings, such as during AMAs or metaverse meet-and-greets.
In the past few years, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have experienced significant growth, transforming a number of industries like the arts, gaming, music, and sports. Numerous NFT use cases have been introduced to billions of sports fans worldwide. What exactly is the impact of these digital tokens on the sports industry?
What Are Sports NFTs?
Blockchain-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a kind of digital assets that are frequently referred to as crypto collectibles. Each NFT is a distinct asset that may be wholly digital or represent a tokenized representation of a physical good.
One of the most recent applications of NFTs is in sports. They provide new opportunities for fans to communicate with and support their preferred teams. NFTs in Sport can be compared to conventional football or basketball player trading cards.
These actual cards are converted via blockchain technology into a variety of NFTs that sports fans may acquire, including memorabilia, gifs, video highlights, game badges, and much more. Additionally, they can be traded on NFT markets like the OpenSea NFT Market.
Some sports NFTs additionally function as a type of fan club membership that grants holders exclusive benefits including entry to meet-and-greet occasions with athletes.
How Do NFTs Improve the Sports Fan Experience?
In recent years, the sports industry has paid close attention to NFTs. Sports NFTs may produce more than $2 billion in transactions in 2022, according to a Deloitte estimate.
Sports NFTs give ardent supporters fresh ways to interact with and support their preferred teams. There are more real-world uses for sports NFTs as NFTs develop, and these are all poised to revolutionize the sector in fascinating ways.
Sports clubs and their athletes can provide supporters with long-term value through the expanding utilities of NFTs, and devoted fans can show their devotion by holding sports NFTs.
Digital/Electronic Collectibles
Fans now have new ways to collect player cards and even video clips from games thanks to sports collectibles. NBA Top Shot, a platform for collecting basketball memorabilia that leverages blockchain technology to digitalize traditional sports trading cards, is one of the most well-liked collections.
Fans can exchange video snippets of famous NBA game highlights on this NFT marketplace. For instance, a video clip of LeBron James imitating the renowned Kobe Bryant slam was auctioned off in April 2021 and sold for approximately $400,000.
Virtual Access Tokens
Beyond digital souvenirs, NFTs can be used as virtual access tokens in live sporting events. For instance, fans who are prepared to pay for NFT tickets may be able to access VIP recordings from the stadium’s player cameras or hear conversations between the players and coaches during team meetings.
Fans can use NFTs to sponsor their preferred athletes or communicate with other sports fans and players directly in the metaverse. The NFT tickets will also enable international supporters who are unable to go to the games to take part in this special watching experience.
In addition to NFTs, some sports teams would issue fan tokens that would grant holders unique club benefits such as access to limited-edition jerseys, player signatures, and ticket discounts. For instance, FC Porto and Binance Fan Tokens collaborated to produce utility NFTs and fan tokens in 2021.
Gaming
NFTs are occasionally employed in online sports games, such as fantasy sports. For example, the popular fantasy football game Sorare uses NFTs in its gameplay. To add players to its NFT cards, it collaborates with elite football clubs like FC Bayern Munich and Real Madrid C.F. To manage a virtual team and participate in tournaments, fans can purchase, acquire, and trade these player cards.
The NFT cards of football players will gain or lose extra points based on how well they perform in actual games.
How Does the Sports Industry Benefit from NFTs?
NFTs transform the idea of sports memorabilia by enabling fans to possess the cards of their favourite players and even game videos. They give sports organizations the chance to build enduring bonds with their supporters.
The way sports organizations interact with their fans is also changed by NFTs. Teams can increase fan engagement by giving members special benefits and occasionally even a way to have a say in key governance decisions.
Athletic Personal Branding
To include their fan base, individual sportsmen might launch their own NFT collections. Athlete NFTs create a bond between the player and their committed fans, just like trading cards do. For instance, fans can showcase keepsakes of their favourite players on social media to display their team colours.
Athletes can also protect their intellectual property rights by issuing NFTs on their own. As NFT creators, they are entitled to royalties from the sales of their NFTs, which might provide them with some breathing room and financial security after they retire.
It Gives Sports Leagues a New Source of Revenue
Sports teams may receive more income if they issue NFTs. Traditionally, the primary sources of revenue for a sports business have been ticket and merchandise sales, media rights, and sponsorships.
Even in the midst of a pandemic, teams can use NFTs to tokenize game tickets, stream live games to token holders, or plan holder-only events in the metaverse.
Conclusion
Recently, there has been an increase in the number of NFT applications in the sports sector, and this trend is likely to continue. Digital assets give organizations new opportunities to interact with their devoted fans and open up fresh revenue streams.
Even though unique badges are still enjoyed by sports fans to possess, trade, and wear, NFT sports use cases today go far beyond digital artifacts.
