NFTs in the Art and Sports World
The crypto space has taken the world by storm and is changing the way artists can generate income and sell their artwork. This global pandemic has turned the world upside down and there is now more money in the stock market and more people getting involved in the crypto space than ever before. NFT’s have exploded in popularity, especially with more and more stories of artists selling their digital artwork for millions of dollars.
NFT’s, or Non-Fungible tokens, allow people to create a digital certificate that represents a unique asset. These tokens can be attached to a digital file like a photo, video, audio recording, or anything in the digital space. By doing so, NFT’s give digital art the same “original” and “limited” credentials that are attached to physical art. NFT’s are now treated as such and can be traced from the origin of an artist or seller, and lets anyone view the selling price as well as how many times an artwork has been sold to new buyers. The great thing about this is that the original artist actually gets a kickback of around 10% of the sale price. This means that an artist would want their artwork to keep selling for higher prices because they would get a royalty on that artwork, forever.
The biggest artist to cash-in on this is Mike Winkleman, aka Beeple, who sold his “Everydays” at Christie’s Marketplace. This was the first time a digital artwork piece was auctioned off for over 69 million dollars. Beeple has been creating and posting artwork every day for the past 14 years. He has created over 5000+ pieces of digital artwork. Through his posts, Beeple has not only created an audience for himself, but he also honed his skills in becoming an elite designer. In the past, this has allowed him to attract a lot of his clients, like Nike, Dior, Samsung, Apple, Space X, Pepsi, Sony, Activision to name a few. But this NFT has got to be the biggest payout for him, especially since he was creating this artwork for the sake of creating this artwork. He believed in the process and himself and reaped in the rewards.
Even the sports world has embraced NFT’s, and artists have started creating sports collectibles. NBA Top Shot is currently in the lead, selling game highlights and digital artwork on their flow blockchain platform created by Dapper Labs from Vancouver. NBA Top Shot might be the perfect storm in that it’s a licensed Intellectual Property that has easy access to game content from the NBA league and from players with mass amounts of followings (aka fans that will spend the money and buy these rare collectibles). There’s a certain sense of power that comes from owning an original piece, even if it’s a simple digital highlight that anyone can view.
Other sports have broken into this space. Sorare, a Premier Soccer Fantasy platform that allows users to purchase player cards from the fantasy league and use them as part of their fantasy picks. Other leagues have also started developing their own collectibles, like UFC’s collectibles that are also being developed by Dapper.
Outside of leagues, players are now entering this space. Rob Gronkowski was the first NFL player to release his NFT, which sold for $1.2 Million USD. Gronk levered his media company Medium Rare and developed an NFT along with a tangible experience where fans could meet him as well as have physically signed memorabilia from Gronk. Many players are now following in his footsteps to monetize their brand and IP and get a bigger piece of the pie, instead of the leagues controlling or dictating what percentage they get off of their platform. It's really important, now more than ever, for players to understand this space and how they can create and engage with fans with NFTs and sports collectibles.
Ticketing for concerts and sports games has also trickled into the NFT’s space by offering exclusive packages accompanied by a physical product or experience. These elements add value to NFT’s and allow them to sell for an even higher price. NFT’s will even affect the way music is distributed if exclusive content will only be available for that NFT owner or a person wanting to own that “original.”
NFT’s are still in that bubble stage, but coming from that bubble are new ways for brands and sports to think about digital artwork and assets and how that can create a valuable experience for fans or one-of-a-kind collectibles. With NFT’s exploding the way they have during these unprecedented times, it will be interesting to see how they will mold the world of art and sport in the near future.
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Jason Jay
Founder & Creative Director | CONTENDER Studio
www.contender.studio
info@contender.studio