According to the Forkast 500 NFT Index, the NFT market peaked in January 2022 and has been in decline ever since. Many people point to the over-saturation of the market, with significant interest occurring in 2020 and 2021 before dying off.
While this has seen the market for NFTs dry up substantially, it doesn’t necessarily herald the end of the NFT era. Now the hype has died down, the market is likely to find its place and new projects will come along to take the place of Cryptokitties and its ilk.
One industry that is still seeing some NFT development is the sports industry. Individual players, like soccer’s Christiano Ronaldo, as well as clubs, leagues, and even national sides, have launched their own NFT collections. It might not quite be the digital fever we saw at the end of 2021, but it still represents a way for fans to show their support and for players and clubs to potentially raise some capital.
Cryptocurrency In The Sports Industry
Cryptocurrency and sports have formed something of an alliance. Sports teams are being sponsored by cryptocurrencies and exchanges – you can see cryptocurrency billboards, especially those belonging to crypto.com, at seemingly every major sporting event.
Cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum are also being accepted as a means of paying for merchandise and booking tickets to games. These same coins are proving popular as a payment method for live betting, too, and, according to sports and casino expert Martin Booth, players can enjoy lightning-fast transactions on a wide variety of different sports and wagers.
What Are NFTs?
NFTs operate on the blockchain, just like cryptocurrencies do. Once an NFT is registered on the blockchain, it can be bought and traded just like any asset. The records are immutable and cannot be deleted which gives the buyer of the token full and permanent ownership.
Virtually any digital file can be turned into an NFT, too, whether it’s audio, video, visual, or, now, even responsive. Artists can sell their digital art, musicians can sell their music. Collectibles are also popular, and it was thanks to collectible games like Cryptokitties that helped further popularise the market.
More recently, though, as collectibles and even digital art and memes have become less popular, sports players, clubs, and leagues have continued to sign new deals or extend existing ones.
Is The NFT Market Dying, Or Just Evolving?
When NFTs became massively popular, most buyers were looking to make quick money. Some of the tokens were selling for millions of dollars, with Pak’s “The Merge” selling for more than $90 million in December 2021. That sale either came at the peak of NFT activity or was responsible for it.
But, as the market has died down, there are fewer and fewer of these massive tickets, with most NFT creators looking for mass exposure, rather than big individual sales. This is evidenced by the likes of Ronaldo partnering with Binance to launch several NFT collections.
The collection proved so popular that the two launched yet another collection. Ronaldo’s NFTs celebrate his illustrious career with individual tokens that commemorate landmark goals, major achievements, and moves between clubs.
Why Teams Launch NFTs
There are various reasons why players and clubs might launch their own NFTs:
- They offer engagement with fans. Sports fans love to buy jerseys and other merchandise, and NFTs are essentially a digital form of merchandising.
- They can be a celebration of achievements. NFTs are typically launched to celebrate landmark victories, league wins, or other celebratory milestones in a player’s or club’s lifetime.
- They do raise capital. NFTs typically have to be unique, although it is possible to issue a number of the same NFTs with a publication number and claim these to be unique enough to justify their own token. Although sports NFTs are unlikely to raise the tens of millions of dollars that some early tokens raised, sell enough and a club or player can raise some much-needed capital.
- They offer exposure. Clubs need fans. They take part in friendlies and tournaments around the world to try and garner extra exposure, and NFTs can bring exposure from a modern, tech-loving crowd that wouldn’t otherwise experience the club.
Fan Tokens As An Alternative
One alternative to NFTs that has also proven popular is fan tokens. These are fungible, which means they can be replaced, so they don’t hold the same value as NFTs. But, they can be established by teams and individuals, sold to raise capital, and they are popular with sports fans who want to show their support for their favorite teams or players. Some tokens even offer voting rights, discounts on tickets, or other bonuses for holders.
Popular Sports NFTs
NFTs aren’t dead and they still bring value to the sports market. Recent examples that are proving popular include:
NBA Top Shot
NBA Top Shot has been set up by the National Basketball Association and offers fans the opportunity to trade “moments” from the NBA league. Every moment is a limited series of NFTs based on a particular moment from the league and throughout its history. Top Shot has become very popular in recent months, which has pushed demand for the NFTs up. Some early buyers are seeing profits, but the increased demand also means that new buyers are facing higher prices.
WNBA Top Shot
The WNBA has also got in on the action, selling tokens that are essentially video clips from vital games and memorable moments of the season. These moments include the introduction of new players to key contributions and vital goals. It hasn’t yet seen the same popularity as NBA Top Shot but is still doing well.
Sorare
Sorare is a soccer-based collectible platform. The collectible cards are based on popular players from the present and past and they are traded on the Sorare platform itself. The NFTs can also be used in online competitions and games, and having been established in 2018, it already has a reasonable following. Prices for some of the biggest names in the game can be high, however.
Christiano Ronaldo NFTs
Ronaldo is one of the most celebrated and successful names in soccer. He recently broke the record for having the most social media followers, and his first collection of NFTs, traded on the Binance network, was so popular that the two have teamed up to announce three more collections, with his most recent in May this year. The NFTs celebrate major milestones in Ronaldo’s incredible career including major games, moves between clubs, and more.
NFL All Day
Dapper Labs has launched an NFL equivalent of the NBA Top Shot platform. Currently, the NFTs, which are based on events and milestones from the NFL calendar, are reasonably affordable, although if it does continue to gain popularity like Top Shot that could soon change. NFL players aren’t as globally recognized as their NBA counterparts, but with that said, one All Day NFT did sell for $30,000 recently.
Autograph
While NFL players might not be as recognizable as basketball players, there are some exceptions, and Tom Brady is one example. He founded Autograph which collaborates with sports stars to launch their NFT collections. Fans can buy NFTs from the likes of Usain Bolt, Tony Hawk, and Rafael Nadal.
How To Buy NFTs
Typically, to buy an NFT, a user needs a suitable crypto wallet and some cryptocurrency. Wallets like MetaMask and the Coinbase Wallet can be used for NFTs. The wallet needs to be compatible with the NFT. Users will also need an account with an NFT platform. Although it is possible to store crypto on some of these marketplaces, it is best to leave the crypto in a wallet, because there is less risk of it being stolen or hacked. The currency can be transferred to the marketplace when the user is ready to buy.
NFTs can either be sold by auction or at a fixed price. In either case, the buyer needs to pay the NFT cost as well as any gas fees for using the network and sending the crypto payment.
It is possible to resell NFTs on these same marketplaces, which is how speculators make money. Some NFT platforms even pay the NFT creator a commission when the token gets resold, which can be a good way to make recurring payments from a single piece of work.
Why People Buy Sports NFTs
Although the popularity of NFTs caught some by surprise, it is similar to the popularity of art. In the sports industry, items like baseball cards, trading cards, and even sports stickers have long been popular.
NFTs are just the digital equivalent. They don’t carry the risk of them being stolen, which is possible with some expensive collector cards, but the resale market of NFTs is as volatile, perhaps even more so, than the overall cryptocurrency market. And, of course, some speculators buy up NFTs in the hope of reselling them for profit later down the line.
