The reports are showing that digital currencies could change how the audience participates in sports and connect with favorite teams.
According to North America Sports Outlook report, 2022 by the Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) consultancy, Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and digital assets are becoming one of the top ten trends of the sports industry. The report has listed three major use of NFTs to reshape the future of the sport from driving fan engagement to changing the technology infrastructure of sports.
The first use of Non-fungible tokens collectible assets is selling digital content with authentication of limited edition, such as memorabilia of historic matches including ticket stubs or players trading cards which could be minted, digitized, and traded over the blockchain. The report also stated that such collectibles could be shared and displayed on the metaverses.
NBA Top Shot of Dapper Labs is a famous example of collectible non-fungible tokens collection. The platform tokenizes and highlights the best plays of NBA history which has ranked second place recently following Axie Infinity game for $827 million NFT transactions in the gaming industry of blockchain in 2021. Another example of a popular NFTs collection is marketplace Autograph of Tom Brady’s NFT collectible, who is retired NFL quarterback, which raised $170 million in B funding series recently.
The second big use of Non-fungible tokens is season ticket member (STM). Providing tokenized verified passes to the season ticket members will lift the experience of devoted fans. Season ticket members (STM) are used to access more special content and stadium events can also have collectible NFTs with a special edition to attend the games. This could also benefit the sponsors if their sponsored teams support them to guarantee the customers who lost the physical tickets would not lose the added benefits.
And lastly, virtual access Non-fungible tokens for the fans willing to pay extra for their virtual experience, if they might not be able to attend the game in person, are also expected in high demand.
Virtual access tokens could be described as season ticket’s latest version which gives access behind the scene bonuses to the owners like virtual locker rooms, bench cams or player cams access. Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain are a few of the soccer clubs so far who had success with fan tokens by giving rights to their fans of behind the scene access.
