We are not kidding… NFTs are here to stay. From influencers talking about it, going through musicians tokenizing their songs, to the millionaire sales of Crypto Punks and digital works of art, there are thousands of different successful projects based on these so-called Non-Fungible Tokens.
Recently an enthusiastic developer published an archive of all the NFT images that he could find on Ethereum and Solana. If you want to download it, it will only take about 20 TB of nothing.
The NFTs moved approximately $250 million last year, and promise to break new records in 2021. This is where the world of sports comes into play.
As can be seen in the graph, courtesy of Messari.io, in the top 10 NFT projects in terms of secondary sales volume there are 3 projects related to sports: NBA Top Shot (nothing more and nothing less than the top 1, for above Crypto Punks), Sorare and F1 Delta Time.
In this article we will explore what makes these projects so special, and what new and exciting possibilities NFTs are offering in the sports environment.
Why is sport so well complemented by NFTs?
It is well known, especially among parents of children of the past decade, that stickers, badges and other types of football or basketball collectibles that could be bought for a couple of coins at the nearest kiosk were all the rage among the public. youths.
It was a whole business and hobby in which both children and adolescents bought, sold and exchanged stickers in order to complete their collection. Frequently, these collections had a “rarity” system, in which their elements were classified according to their scarcity in the “mystery” packages in which they were sold and, therefore, by their difficulty to obtain.
I myself admit that, in order to find the last two or three cards of legendary rarity needed to complete one of my card collections from when I was little, I would have been willing to spend most of my pay, trying to seal a deal with someone else. child to sell them in the village market.
Today, with the modernization and digitization of entertainment, these physical collectibles are disappearing in favor of virtual versions. From sports video games with an in-game payment system in which it is necessary to buy digital players to be able to use them in multiplayer mode, to participation in betting and fantasy sports, the community enjoys their love of sports from the comfort from their house.
Bearing this in mind, that the sports games and collectibles industry is turning almost entirely to the crypto world, and specifically the NFTs sector is natural and logical (if you don't know what an NFT is yet, this article is highly recommended: https://messari.io/article/explain-it-like-i-am-5-nfts):
The transparency and security of blockchain-based marketplaces, added to the implementation of royalties and copyrights to the assets that are sold in them make them an ideal place to buy and sell collectibles, and for the original authors to have almost control total on the distribution of their collections and the benefits they generate.
The scarcity and rarity of collectibles is represented by default in NFTs. If you want one part to be more difficult to get than another, you simply mined fewer copies of its corresponding NFT.
Once you own an NFT, it is 100% yours, since the digital property of it is immutable registered in a block of a blockchain. This elevates the hobbyist's unique collection feel to stratospheric levels.
Thanks to the innovative concept of Play-to-Earn, existing thanks to blockchain technology, holders of NFTs related to sports video games or fantasy sports can earn money by using them in-game to obtain rewards that can then be sold, along with their own. NFTs, in marketplaces integrated into the real crypto market. This is a great contrast and advantage over current sports video games, where players only spend money to gain access to a “virtual success”, that is, existing only within the game itself.
NFTs have great synergy with Fan Tokens, which I talk about in more depth in this article (link to my Fan Tokens article). Furthermore, NFTs can be easily linked to real assets and goods such as merchandising promotions and discounts, match tickets, meet with famous players, exclusive signed jerseys, courses, etc.
Bearing this in mind, we can now delve into the ins and outs of the projects implemented by the NFTs with the sport that are having the most success, and especially those three that appear in the table above.
NBA Top Shot
As the leader in terms of NFTs marketplaces is NBA Top Shot. It is nothing more and nothing less than a market where memorable moments in NBA history can be bought and sold. To achieve something like this, different clips of big plays and key events in matches are selected, and transformed into collectible NFTs.
Different collections are minting on the website, with the different NFTs distributed according to their rarity (scarcity) related to how legendary the moments that are represented in them are, and can be obtained by purchasing "mystery envelopes", in the that the different NFTs are randomly distributed. Without a doubt a powerful analogy with the classic collections of cards that I have spoken about previously. It even has an interesting system called Showcase, in which platform users can show their collection to the rest of the world, as if it were a trading card, even with access to juicy rewards if certain collections are completed ...
However, NBA Top Shot also offers its own marketplace, where the different moments can be bought, sold and exchanged between the users of the platform. The key feature of NBA Top Shot is that both the purchase of envelopes and the operations carried out in the marketplace can be carried out by paying with fiat money, which makes it one of the most affordable platforms to bring together fans of basketball and collecting in general to the crypto world.
If you want to know more about Top Shot and what it means for its users, I recommend this video:
More info on NBA Top Shot can be found on their website: https://nbatopshot.com/
Sorare
Sorare also positions itself as an NFT collectibles platform, only in this case it focuses on soccer, and instead of memorable moments, its users collect virtual stickers of players.
On the platform, built on Ethereum, cards can be purchased through mysterious packages in a similar way to that presented in NBA Top Shot. A marketplace is also available to be able to trade your cards and potentially earn money.
But the grace of Sorare is the usefulness of his cards. Beyond their collectible value, these can be used in Fantasy Sports matches. Fantasy Sports are virtual games in which participants assemble a team of virtual players, associated with real players, and compete at the same time as they in different games, leagues and tournaments. The outcome of the virtual match depends on the real-life performance of the players involved. Therefore, it is highly related to the knowledge of the participants about their favorite team.
In Sorare's case, the members of your virtual team must build them from the cards you have in your possession. The different NFTs have statistics related to the actual results of the player in question. Therefore, to win in Sorare's Fantasy Sports, and access its various rewards (you can even win ETH and exclusive cards), you must have active and successful players ... and be very careful that they do not get injured in real life!
The real-time variation of the statistics of the players' NFTs has an interesting added utility, and that is that it affects the value and demand of chromium in the Sorare marketplace. If you want to go in search of success in Sorare, the strategy is to get a young promise, and sell his NFT, which you bought cheap, for a fortune once the player has reached the Hall of Fame.
More info on the Sorare website: https://sorare.com/
F1 Delta Time
The latest project of those shown in the table at the beginning moves a bit away from team sports and balls, and enters the world of Formula 1. Again, it is a platform where you can buy, through mystery packs, various collectible NFTs.
These NFTs come in the form of F1 cars, and various accessories for both the car (such as steering wheels, wheels, engines, etc.) and the driver (suit, gloves, lucky charm, etc.). The purpose of these NFTs is to participate with them in different races and virtual Grand Prixes, and gain access to the possibility of winning prizes.
These races are, as shown in the following video, a minigame in which players control the accelerator and brake of their cars, to try to reach the finish line before their rivals.
The main attraction of the game is the ability to customize your NFT cars with the different NFT accessories that you have in your collection. This affects the vehicle's performance on the different tracks, so good equipment is crucial to claim victory!
To play, you will need to get hold of F1 Delta Time's native token, REVV, via Ethereum. By competing, you can earn more REVVs, exclusive NFT trophies, and more cars and gear. More information on their website: https://www.f1deltatime.com/
Of course, in addition to in-game rewards, F1 Delta Time NFTs can also be bought and sold on NFT marketplaces like OpenSea:
If you want to find out how the different NFTs work in the game, an interesting reading can be its whitepaper:
https://www.f1deltatime.com/F1-Delta-Time-White-Paper-v1.0-Comp.pdf
Other interesting projects worth mentioning are:
Stadioplus
An innovative marketplace where athletes, clubs or leagues can get in touch with artists and sell exclusive NFT collections of sports art pieces.
If you are interested in what you see, visit their website: https://stadioplus.com/
Watafan
Another NFTs marketplace for athletes in the form of virtual cards. However, with a twist: through Smart Contracts, it offers great customization of royalties and copyrights in the resales of NFTs, but all for the common good. A large part of the funds raised from the sale of the NFTs goes to NGOs or solidarity campaigns. Without a doubt, a very interesting way to give a charitable impact to the business of NFTs.
More info on their website: https://info.watafan.com/#:~:text=tus%20fans,grano%20de%20arena%20creando%20NFTs!
Rage Fan
It is a recent and ambitious platform that, through blockchain technology, integrates DFS (Daily Fantasy Sports) for football, basketball and cricket, utility NFTs, Fan Tokens and solid tokenomics that promote game mining, staking and the collection of airdrops in augmented reality.
If all these characteristics are interesting to you, here is their website: https://rage.fan/
And, to investigate further, his whitepaper:
https://rage.fan/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Rage-Fan-White-Paper.pdf
Conclusion
We are still in an early era of blockchain technology, and specifically of NFT technology. There is still a long way to go to unlock their full potential… In the case of their relationship with sport, it is clear that they have taken off due to their collectible nature, not only to satisfy nostalgic sticker collectors, but thousands of investors and traders who have transformed the exchange of NFTs in millionaire businesses.
However, beyond Play-to-Earn, and the very value of NFTs, new utilities are emerging for them: for example, they wonderfully represent ticket sales to matches, can be used for solidarity purposes, or exchanged for different offers . Added to how, through fantasy sports and their synergy with Fan Tokens, they promote the relationship between sports fans and their favorite teams in the age of digital entertainment, it seems that, indeed, NFTs are here to stay.