There are already good examples of using NFT in sports. In most cases in this sphere, it is used to attract attention to an event, popularize a team or athlete, increase the number of fans, and generate additional revenue.
For example, blockchain Flow in partnership with the NBA produces NFT cards of basketball players, the best moments of the match, and sells tickets for matches on the basis of NFT tokens.
It is not excluded that in time NFT will give fans the opportunity to influence the career of an athlete, team. It is likely that there will be teams that will be supported and managed by the community with the help of NFTs.
Right now, many sports organizations, athletes, teams and their owners are looking at the huge hype around sports NFTs and thinking about how to become a part of it (how to make money from it). Next, we’ll describe exactly how leagues, clubs and athletes are using or planning to use NFTs in sports.
Games and collectible cards
If you are a league representative, sports team owner or just an enterprising enthusiast, you can create your own trading platform to mint and sell an exclusive collection of cards in the form of NFTs. You can also create a video game where all players, clubs, competitions, leagues and skins will be realized as NFTs and their holders will use them to play against each other or team up and hold virtual competitions.
An example is the virtual game Sorare. It is an Ethereum-based fantasy soccer collectible card game that was launched by Adrien Monfort and Nicolas Giulia in 2018. So far, Sorare has managed to formalize partnerships with almost 200 teams to create NFTs c players from these teams and use them in the game. Among them you can see players from FC Bayern München, Liverpool FC, AC Milan, Real Madrid CF, Valencia CF and many other famous soccer teams.
Videos and GIFs of the best moments
When we think of our favorite athlete, we usually don’t remember their accomplishments, but rather the highlights of their moments of glory or famous (funny) rituals before a game, such as LeBron James throwing chalk in the air. All of these treasured moments can be recorded and turned into NFTs to then be auctioned off or given to the most loyal fans (or contest winners).
Photos and other personal files
An athlete, team, or league can select photos, videos, or other materials from their personal archives that have not previously been published on the Web and convert them into non-interchangeable tokens. These can be photos from childhood, from the first match, training, athletes’ award ceremony, or old group photos of teams, event organizers, first kicks, etc. The main thing is that the photo should have commemorative or collectible value.
And such sports NFTs can be made not only by participants of events or their representatives, but also, for example, by photographers, parents and friends of athletes, as well as schools and universities where they studied. In short, such NFTs can be made by anyone who has copyright and reproduction rights to photos and videos.
