Every reporter Li Peipei Every editor Xiao Ruidong
“Daily Economic News” was informed that this year, Web3 is “invading” the sports circle with a faster and more violent momentum.
Recently, the NFL (Major Football League) announced a partnership with blockchain game studio Mythical Games to launch the NFT blockchain game “NFL Rivals”, which is expected to be released in early 2023. Pushing the time forward, the NBA (National Professional Basketball Association) previously released the NBA Top Shot, an NFT digital collection, which exploded immediately once it was launched. Not long ago, the NBA also set up a new social media account “NBAxNFT”, and the introduction on the homepage reads: “NBA Official Web3 Homepage.”
Although the overall sales of NFTs have shown a relatively obvious downward trend in recent months, the enthusiasm for Web3 in the sports industry has not cooled down, but has continued to increase. As NBA star Spencer Dinwiddie said in a recent interview, the conversation among players in the locker room has now changed from traditional topics to “boring apes, NFTs and digital assets.”
NBA, bow to enter Web3
In the first half of this year, the NBA established a new social media account on a social platform called “NBAxNFT”. According to the official introduction, this is the official Web3 homepage of the NBA, with a total of 27,000 people following it so far.
Image source: Screenshot of social platform
Along with this social account, there is also the account of the NBA’s online community platform “Discord”, which is also used to promote its own Web3 and NFT projects.
In the field of Web3, the NBA has already done it for a long time. In 2020, the NBA teamed up with blockchain technology company DapperLabs to launch an NBA-focused NFT digital collection, the NBA Top Shot that later became popular. The content of this type of digital collection is mainly the iconic actions of some star players. Fans can purchase, sell, trade and collect digital season iconic actions by purchasing related NFTs.
It is worth mentioning that DapperLabs is a hot NFT startup company in recent years. The previously popular CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shots are the representative works of this company. After completing the latest round of financing last year led by Coatue and co-invested by well-known institutions such as a16z, DapperLabs’ valuation has reached $7.6 billion.
According to public information, the rating agency TokenInsight predicts that the sales of NBA Top Shots will reach $661 million in 2021. In total, NBA Top Shot processed more than 25 million transactions and grossed more than $1 billion in sales, according to Dapper Labs senior vice president Jennifer van Dijk. This considerable “business” naturally makes the NBA pay more attention to the distribution of NFT products and the exploration in the field of Web3. This year, it has launched a series of NFTs in the playoffs called “The Association”, which has also aroused the enthusiasm of fans. repercussions.
More importantly, not only NBA officials, but also many star players and even NBA executives have a very positive attitude towards Web3, which also makes Web3’s penetration of NBA deeper than other professional sports fields. Dinwiddie, mentioned above, tried to turn his contracts worth tens of millions of dollars into digital investment tools and issued bonds based on this. US dollar financing. In addition, LeBron James (LeBron James), Stephen Curry (Stephen Curry) and many other stars have issued their own NFTs.
In a recent interview, Dinwiddie said that when players were drafted to the NBA in 2014, players were usually in the locker room chatting about “luxury cars and stuff,” and now, it’s the boring apes, NFTs, and digital assets. is the focus of discussion.
Web3 “invades” the sports circle, is the industry really ready?
Not only the NBA, Web3 is fully “invading” the sports circle.
At the Super Bowl, dubbed the “American Spring Festival Gala” earlier this year, the NFL offered every ticket buyer a perk in addition to a physical ticket — a collection of NFTs with detailed seating information for ticket holders. At that time, this practice was regarded by many people in the industry as a sign that the collection of tickets by fans officially entered a new era.
Just recently, the NFL announced that it will cooperate with blockchain game studio Mythical Games to launch the NFT blockchain game “NFL Rivals”, which is expected to be released in early 2023, once again successfully attracting the attention of the industry and fans.
In addition to these traditional sports events, NFTs are also being used more and more frequently in racing and other fields. For example, F1 NFTs have become more abundant after many major events.
Some companies in the field of Web3 are also actively moving closer to the sports industry. In early July, digital financial technology platform Amber Group signed a long-term global contract with La Liga giant Atlético de Madrid, becoming the latter’s global main sponsor, immediately setting off a new wave of enthusiasm among practitioners. In fact, since 2020, a large number of Web3 companies have continued to “sweep” top-class sports IP resources, from titled stadiums to sponsoring teams, from basketball, rugby football, to emerging e-sports, and the momentum is quite rapid.
However, is the sports world really ready?
According to the latest data released by The Block, an encrypted data company, the entire NFT market hit a high of $16.6 billion in monthly trading volume in January this year, but it has since started a downward pattern. By June, it was only $1.04 billion, a decrease of 74% from the previous month. %. The price and transaction volume of some NFTs also continued to decline. Taking NBA Top Shots as an example, after a small outbreak in early 2021, the transaction volume began to decline rapidly, and by April this year, it had dropped by nearly 68% year-on-year.
Although the relevant person in charge of the NBA said in an interview with the media that the violent fluctuations in the NFT market “did not affect any long-term plans”, it is obvious to the naked eye that the decline in value and transaction volume has caused interference to other NFT projects in the NBA.
We should see that the high degree of fit between the sports industry and Web3 has caused a rapid chemical reaction between the two. At present, the development of sports NFT, blockchain games and other applications is quite hot. But in the eyes of many people in the industry, this is only in its infancy, and it may have a more profound impact in the future.
Earlier this year, Wood, the head of technology at Dapper Labs in China, gave a public talk. In this conversation, he admitted that NFT can have more usage scenarios, one is identity certificate, academic certificate, ticketing, copyright certification, off-chain asset certificate, etc., the other is digital collection, and some may only have real Web3 Only users who have a good understanding of it will have a deeper understanding that it can also have more bearing space in the field of financial derivatives. “In the future scenario of NFT, it may not only be limited to the digital collection of avatars we have known before, including encrypted cats, and there will be more possibilities.”
Source of cover image: Photo Network_400156318
