SPORTS AND BLOCKCHAIN ONE LOVE AFFAIR? NBA LAUNCHES INITIATIVE ON WEB3 AND NFTs.
The National Basketball Association announced the launch of its own NFT initiative called the “NBAxNFT” This comes after the popular basketball collection NBA Top Shot and the Golden State Warriors 2022 Playoff responsive NFT collection. The Golden State Warriors NFT is driven by the success of the team’s on-court NBA Playoff Performance.
The NBA Top Shot project has helped drive mainstream awareness for blockchain and NFTs. This was a joint venture between the National Basketball Association and non-fungible company Dapper Labs. NBA Top Shot created a space where individuals interested in NFTs and basketball can converge to trade pieces of sports history. This brought people to their favorite teams, players, and sports moments. Not to forget, the Top shots project runs on the FLOW blockchain which is created by Dapper Labs. Flow is a developer-friendly blockchain built to support the next generation of games, apps, and digital assets.
The NBA Top Shot system works such that it combines NBA highlights and digital art. The NBA licenses reels to Dapper Labs, which then creates moments from the footage. Moments are video highlights that have been attached to NFTs. Each has a unique digital serial number that guarantees the authenticity and indicates how rare the Moment is. These moments are of only a limited number thus creating scarcity. This in turn increases the rarity of specific Moments and, as a result, the financial value. In terms of all-time sales volume, the Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot NFT collection holds the 26th position. To date, its top sales are a Lebron James moment at the 2020 NBA finals which holds a record sale of $230,023.
Just to add on the GSW NFTs a bit. It is a limited collection of 2,999 NFTs made up of 11 unique designs, randomly assigned and minted on the Solana blockchain via FTX. Each design has a unique level of parity with its utility and benefits. This collection was designed by Seriously Fun, a design studio that specializes in Web3, pushing the limits of what’s possible in these exciting emergent spaces.
The NBAxNFT initiative currently consists of a Twitter account and a Discord Channel. The recently launched Discord Channel has a total of 44,275 members and has big potential to grow in the coming few months. NBAxNFT is being called the “Official Web3 home for the NBA” as the project detailed that it aims to showcase all things basketball and Web3 that is: NFTs, gaming, and the Metaverse.
WHAT ARE THE NFTs FOR?
The NFTs consist of:
· Game tickets, Video games, signatures, player, arena, and fan images.
· Photographs, videos, interviews, clips, highlights.
· Stats, records, and memes relating to the field of basketball.
FINAL THOUGHTS.
This all seems like just the beginning for NBA. It is surely more proof that the NBA is as serious as it is creative on the subject of cultivating new fans and finding innovative ways to engage the existing ones. Indeed, blockchain and Sports are one love affair, by putting this at the forefront, guarantees the company’s future to a better and more enhanced sports fandom.
