BLOCKCHAIN AND THE SPORTS INDUSTRY

International Sports Update Posted on 2022-10-19 20:38:25

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The sports industry is evolving and adapting to new technology in the world. Blockchain technology is one of the new technologies which industries like the agriculture, health, education, financial industries, and the voting system are adopting.

 

What is blockchain then, simply put, blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that records and stores transactions and information. Blockchain is immutable, transparent, requires no intermediary, no central authority involved. Blockchain has the potential to disrupt the sports industry, it can give players and teams more control over their data, reduce transaction costs, and involves smart contract automating payments.

 

Blockchain has the ability to empower people, whether athletes, or other individuals. People have custody of their data and personal information.

 

Use Cases of Blockchain In The Sports Industry.

 

1. Fan Token

Organizations can get to know their fans better by engaging with fans using blockchain. Sport clubs and athletes can create their own tokens which the fans could spend on tickets, food at matches, meetings with players. Tokens can be bought by fans via fiat currencies such as dollars, pounds, and euros.

Aspiring athletes can tokenize themselves and raise funds through the sales of tokens.

 

FC Barcelona sells virtual tokens, a form of cryptocurrency, which allow fans to vote in club polls and become eligible for rewards, such as free tickets to games and meetings with players. Football clubs who have used fan tokens include: Barcelona, Juventus, Paris-Saint Germain, Gelatosaray, Atletico Madrid, and A.S.Roma.

 

2. NFTs

NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens)

facilitates the creation of limited edition or unique digital collectibles like trading cards, that can’t be destroyed, replicated or forged. NFTs can enable teams, athletes track ownership and usage of their token.

 

Three projects paved the way for the explosion of sports based NFTs in 2021, which include NBATopshots, MLA Champions and Sacramento Kings.

 

3. Payments in Cryptocurrency

Some athletes have even started receiving payments in cryptocurrencies. Athletes like Nikolay Rosenthal,Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Russell Okung, Saquon Barkley and many others receive their earnings and compensation in bitcoins(first and most popular cryptocurrency). While some athletes only take compensation in bitcoin and other cryptocurrency.

 

Some teams accept cryptocurrency including Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks, and European soccer teams.

 

4. Game Tickets

The era where people line up waiting for tickets to enter the stadium is gone. Game tickets can be distributed by event organizers on a decentralized blockchain platform. This helps to carry out the sales of tickets and refund effortlessly. For instance, when it's raining and fans cannot watch the game and players can't play due to the rain, smart contracts will enable refund of money to the fans since the activities were not executed. Also, with blockchain-based ticketing systems, counterfeit tickets are destroyed, no one can change the price of a ticket or claim to have bought a ticket.

 

Drug testing of athletes, streaming, verification of memorabilia authenticity, fans loyalty and engagements are amongst the other use cases of block chain technology in the sports industry.

 

Ways the sports industry Is promoting blockchain

1. Sponsorship

2. Fan tokens

3. NFTs

 

 

In conclusion, with blockchain an athlete can sign a digital contract that executes automatically when they fulfill their part of the contract, athletes can control the rights to their data and digital items and get paid automatically when it is used in an ad or games, they can have digital equivalent of their signed jersey and other collectibles and sell them as NFTs. Fans can invest in players, especially aspiring players and get shares. Event organizers can use blockchain to sell tickets.

 

Companies like Jetcoin, Globatalent, and Sportyco are all founded on smart contracts. This allows fans to invest in their favorite athletes and get a portion of their earnings. Jetcoin for instance can be used to get into VIP events, purchase tickets, get seat upgrades and other things.

 

 

 

 

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