Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) introduce some new value in raising awareness for the lesser-known sports. In the last few years, NFTs have proven that they can enhance communities and businesses. Nonetheless, there is another notable use case that should never be overlooked.
The whole sports world, which includes the lesser-known leagues and all the athletes that create it should not be overlooked. Based on the current system set up, only the players who participate in the famous sports get the needed support from their fans and are hence compensated accordingly.
However, even in such scenarios, there is mostly a middleman at play, limiting the opportunities for the fans to interact with their heroes and for the players to get full compensation for their legacy. For such reasons, sports fanatics are not the ones that walk into the store and buy a package of trading cards or merchandise kit.
Instead, the modern enthusiasts have now shifted most of their attention to nonfungible tokens (NFTs). These tokens guarantee their ownership of a snippet of sports history. Hence, the assets may come in a few forms, including video clips, trading cards, and other memorabilia.
In the past three years, EX Sports has made it its primary mission to address this growing segment. The company has changed the paradigm for professional sports by sustainably increasing the rate of fan engagement while concurrently enabling athletes to unlock most of their value by creating tokens.
The results of all these efforts are the launch of one location or marketplace for the users to sell, buy, or exchange NFTs issued by the athletes themselves. Then, users can create albums to store their collection and use token rewards for meet and greets, tickets, and other rewards.
With considerable growth in these initiatives, the EX Sports team has now leveraged several exclusive partnerships with the International Federation of Muaythai Associations (IFMA), Ju-Jitsu International Federation (JJIF), International Powerlifting Federation (IPF), among others.
A First In The NFTs World
Such partnerships enabled marketplace users to access the world’s first Official Diego Maradona NFTs. That collection comprises 10 Maradona memorabilia, with four Platinum NFTs getting auctioned off at an exclusive event.
The other notable collections consist of a series of Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu athletes, which are available for sale. Also, there are those for Freestyle football NFTs through a partnership with two-time world freestyle football champion Sean Garnier. Just like the other collections, every asset varies in edition and quantity, and they make their purchase first-come, first-serve.
Participation in the marketplace is designed mainly for simplicity, only needing the presence of USDT on the Polygon Network and MetaMask wallet to start transacting.
To guarantee that value is being earned for both the athlete and the community, the platform tells the users that each time an NFT is sold, the value of the next one increases accordingly. Moreover, as the athletes continue progressing in their careers and their sport becomes famous and popular, holding the NFTs may mean that the holder will enjoy higher values of their items in the future.
On the flip side, whenever an athlete makes a sale, they earn 80% of the revenue, which confirms to the supporters that their contributions help the teams and athletes they adore.
A lot more is coming
Apart from the launch of the marketplace, 2021 also saw the attendance of many events, like a speaking appearance at a GITEX Global panel.
While reflecting how far they have come, the CEO of EX Sports said:
“The Marketplace launch is a major milestone in the EX Sports Journey. From day one, many years ago, we were focused on helping athletes from niche sports have the same revenue and fan engagement opportunities as those from mainstream sports. I am really proud of this massive step that we have taken, and there is so much more to come.”
Pointing towards the team’s official roadmap, the users can now expect the release of a mobile app to accompany the current desktop interface, an advancement that is believed to further boost the selling and buying processes. The app release will be done together with continued participation in sporting events. In the long term, there will be the release of play-to-earn sports games.
