The Non-Fungible Token (NFT) hype wave of 2021 led to the combination of fantasy sports and blockchain technology, changing the way fantasy sport is played forever.
More than just digital art
Digital art became the cultural shorthand for NFTs, with projects like NBA Topshot becoming one of the biggest NFT platforms earlier this year. Artist, Beeple, sold his digital art NFT collection for a whopping $69.3 million USD. This acted as a gateway as it introduced a large amount of people to blockchain technology. NFTs have a variety of uses beyond just being nice to look at and collect.
NFTs can have utility in games that have defined rules, which makes them a great fit for fantasy sport. The blockchain has provided new ways for people to interact and transact with one another. Players now have the ability to buy, collect and sell digital assets within games. If you want to learn more about what NFTs are, check out this article here.
NFT Fantasy sport projects
NFT fantasy soccer projects, Sorare and Real Fevr, have skyrocketed in both popularity and volume in recent history. Real Fevr's associated cryptocurrency '$FEVR' has seen an enormous 1600% growth from when it was released to the public in July and Sorare has recently been valued at $3.8 billion USD. Real Fevr had its first NFT launch August 2021 and had sold the entirety of their packs for $1.5 million USD within the first 24 hours. A Cristiano Ronaldo NFT recently sold for $290,000 USD on Sorare and a unique Bruno Fernandes NFT selling for $91,000 USD. What this tells me is that the combination of NFTs and fantasy sports is here to stay and will provide a pathway for coaches to capitalise on their expertise.
New ways to play
The integration of NFTs with fantasy sport has led to new strategies and ways to play unlike ever before. It allows for true ownership of players and the in-game value of a player is a reflection of real-life performance.
NFTs allow coaches to own players and provides freedom to buy and sell them on an open marketplace.
This is made possible because they're your assets and you decide what you want to do with them. This is revolutionary as it will provide opportunities for coaches to financially benefit from their fantasy sport knowledge and skills.
The strategy I'm looking forward to the most is the 'dynasty' strategy. Coaches who have a good eye at picking future stars can purchase them on the marketplace for a bargain. A coach could choose to hold on to this player and use them as part of their squad for future years, or choose to sell them for a profit. I personally would have loved to pick up Cody Weightman at the start of this year (and I'd be holding until 2024).
GameDay Squad is planning on utilising NFTs in new and exciting ways. Pink slips, squad building challenges and player card loaning are just some of the features that GameDay Squad are planning on bringing to the fantasy sport arena.
Love of the game
It is endearing to see the world's appetite for fantasy sport projects in the NFT space. We know that fantasy sport is important to people, and that coaches spend a bit more time than they should (us too!) listening to podcasts, doing analysis and thinking about their Squad.
After experiencing NFT fantasy sport and all the benefits it has to offer, we don't think you'll ever go back to regular fantasy sport. GameDay Squad is committed to delivering a quality user experience - because we are going to be playing too. Keep an eye out for our platform, launching late 2021.