The Burgeoning World of NFT Sport Collectibles
A multitude of sporting legends, both past and present, are signing on with multi-year NFT deals announced by the likes of Tiger Woods, Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Derek Jeter, Wayne Gretzky, Naomi Osaka and a multitude of other athletes over the last several months.
Each and everyone can smell success in the growing world of digital collection initiatives. And so too can the collectors.
Allyson Ray, a cryptocurrency adviser who works with digital trading companies wrote in an article that appeared on Medium that the “sports business is capturing more attention in the NFT area than any other industry. To be more specific, sports industries are already well established among the public, and sports have the capacity to affect the emotions of fans and sports lovers.”
The sports-based NFT marketplace, she added, is a location where anything linked to sports has a big opening: “Professionals from the sports industry came up with the notion of making NFT a money generator.” And yes, it has indeed worked.
McKinsey Research, for one, is bullish on this sector for a number of reasons. In an analysis written for Sportico, Dan Singer and Ben Vonwiller, who lead McKinsey & Company’s global sports and gaming practice, conclude that the sports NFT market is “here to stay as a powerful medium for fan engagement.”
“From our research, which included an April survey of 2,500 U.S. consumers aged 18-65, we estimate that 0.5% to 1% of U.S. adults have bought a sports NFT so far, and another 5% are highly interested. If all this segment were to spend US$205 per year (the median self-reported figure in our survey) the sports NFT market would reach US$2.5 billion from U.S. buyers alone.”
“Notwithstanding the boom-and-bust cycle of NFT prices so far, we see proven, growing fan interest in the category. Sports NFTs are tapping into the emotions and attachment of traditional fandom, with ample opportunity for additional innovation.”
Think this is all being over-hyped? Then think again. The following release issued at the end of August just prior to the U.S. Open tennis championship by promoter Cool Media PR speaks volumes about the economic windfalls that exist for both athletes themselves and collectors, who see the opportunity to turn some massive profits.
The first example involves tennis star, Naomi Osaka and her sister, Mari Osaka, who in April, “dropped a six-piece collection of 1-of-1 NFTs.”
The NFTs were individually auctioned on retail marketplace Basic.Space, and they collectively sold for nearly $600,000. One of the editions was purchased for $200,200, which, to date, is the highest single NFT sale by a professional tennis player.
“Now, the owner of the sixth and final Osaka NFT is putting the piece of digital artwork up for sale, hoping to capitalize on the favorable timing of the booming NFT market and the start of the U.S. Open tennis tournament this week in New York.”
The release goes on to say that “soccer superstar Lionel Messi sold a 1-of-1 NFT for more than US$1 million last week. In July, heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury sold a single-edition token for US$987,000. Professional athletes Patrick Mahomes, Rob Gronkowski, Francis Ngannou and Andy Murray have all sold one-of-a-kind NFTs in the six-figure range this year.”
It is a massive business that is going to continue to grow, and Clancy will be there. The Clancy vision is to deliver exclusive, collective video moments via NFT blockchain technology.
Today, everyone is talking about NFTs, and Clancy delivers the ultimate interactive NFT digital sports and entertainment cards that ramp up fan excitement and engagement.
It is a platform that enables the creation of a high-engagement NFT “front-of-card” collectible video experience and a back-of-card offering that delivers frictionless commerce and other fan interactions – promotions, merchandise, gamification, social, news and other sponsor integrations. The Clancy blockchain platform utilizes a scalable, ultra-secure minting process that mints and tracks the NFTs within a private marketplace.
This is absolutely essential when it comes to a collector getting into the market in hopes of turning a profit by embracing a new form of commerce.
Finally, Aakriti Ahuja of Idea Usher Solutions, a company based in Mohali, India that specializes in web and application development, wrote in a recent blog that despite the fact that NFT is still a relatively “new” technology, it presents sportsmen and innovators with advantages they could never have imagined.
“Given that the NFT craze does not appear to be slowing down, it would be a huge mistake to pass up the opportunity to try NFTs.”
