Best Sports NFT Platforms in 2022 • Benzinga Crypto
Want to go straight to how to buy sports NFTs? Sorare is the premier sports NFT and fan token platform with an unrivaled selection of partnerships with world-renowned sports teams.
According to GlobeNewswire, by 2022 the sports industry is projected to reach a total valuation of over $500 billion. This rapidly growing market has now adopted sports non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as a way to increase engagement with fans. NFTs in sports can be used for a variety of things, including the art of your favorite player, tokenized trading cards, or tradable team tokens associated with your favorite team.
This guide will describe the sports NFT market and how you can get involved. In the last year, NFTs have already been used by massive football clubs, NBA, NFL and MLB. Navigating this vast area can be difficult, but this guide will help you get started.
What is an NFT?
NFTs are unique digital assets. Unlike a fungible asset such as the US dollar or an underlying cryptocurrency, which can be exchanged for another identical asset, NFTs are not mutually exchangeable. These assets cannot be replaced by another identical item.
NFTs are stored on a blockchain and are unique tokens that cannot be replicated. NFTs can be used to represent something unique. NFTs are often used to represent collectibles, artwork, or other items of value that cannot be reproduced.
By 2022, major sports institutions have already tokenized many aspects of their industry into NFTs. These assets are often minted on the Ethereum blockchain due to the market dominance in this area. After they are minted, they are usually tradable on any NFT platform. Fans can buy and trade these assets in real-time, earn rewards and receive physical goodies like a signed jersey from the team for their involvement.
An important feature of NFTs is that you can easily prove that you are the sole owner of the asset or assets represented by the token. All you need to do is check the blockchain.
How NFTs Can Improve Sports Fandoms
When it comes to sports, fans have strong connections to their favorite player or team and want to be involved with them as much as possible. This engagement could be attending a live game, purchasing merchandise, or attending signing events. Fans always want to be close to their favorite player, and sports NFTs are a new revenue stream for the industry.
Sorare and Binance are two reputable platforms that are actively working with players and teams to build on this new opportunity.
Overview of the Sorare platform
Sorare is a digital sports fantasy platform built on NFTs and allows fans to not only create their favorite fantasy team, but own and profit from their fantasy favorites. The cards offered by Sorare are officially licensed digital cards featuring the world’s best basketball, soccer and MLB players.
The teams you create with your digital collection allow you to earn points based on the player’s real-life performance on the field. Fans can enter contests and possibly win big.
The playing cards on Sorare are tokenized using the Ethereum blockchain and can be freely traded as sports collectibles. Along with in-game use cases, tokenization adds a new layer of strategy and fundraising opportunities to this innovative betting arena.
How to get started with Sorare
-
Best before
Play to earn games
The main product of the Sorare ecosystem is its tiered playing cards, which are bid on and traded in the marketplace by fans interested in building their deck’s value.
Cards traded on the Sorare platform are officially licensed by the team or club they represent and are built according to the ERC-721 standard. This standard is the fundamental contract on the Ethereum network that allows the minting and trading of NFTs and provable scarcity of these digital collectibles.
Card scarcity comes in four categories:
- Unique (one-of-a-kind)
- Super Rare (10 total copies available)
- Rare (100 copies available)
- Common (unlimited copies available).
When you open a new account with Sorare, you will receive a free pack of regular cards to get you started. The cards that are given for free have no starting value, but they are very useful to get you started on building your team. As you get better at playing the platform, you can move on to collect higher level cards and become more competitive.
Regular cards can also be used as a base and then supplemented with higher level cards to optimize how effective your team is. If you come across a card you want to add to your deck, you can bid on it using either a debit card or cryptocurrency in your Ethereum wallet. All cards have a limited amount of time you can bid, so once the counter is up, no more bids can be placed.
After you’ve built a deck you’re comfortable with, jump into the Sorare Tournament Arena and put your sports skills to the test. To keep events on a level playing field, the tournaments are divided by skill level and the type of cards the players hold. This prevents an experienced player with high level cards from competing with a brand new user with a shared deck.
Prizes awarded to players who win tournaments include:
- Limited edition card: Unique, super rare, and rare cards that can improve your deck are usually offered as prizes.
- Ether: High-level tournaments can allow you to earn rewards in Ether, the currency that powers the Ethereum network.
Binance Fan Tokens Overview
Binance Fan Tokens is another innovation brought by the cryptocurrency industry to sports leagues looking to empower and reward fans. These tokens are a type of utility token that directly connects teams to fans globally. Using the Binance Launchpad, the Binance team has created a platform where teams can launch a token for their team to create better experiences and connect with their fans on a deeper level.
Fans who purchase their favorite team’s token can:
- Influence team decisions by voting.
- Unlock fan badges to get special rewards or privileges.
- Get whitelist spots to buy limited edition NFTs from a favorite team.
- Win once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, such as a chance to meet your favorite players.
How to get started with Binance Fan Tokens
- Visit the official Binance Fan Token platform and register.
- You can join a fan token launchpad to be among the first users of a specific tier of tokens, buy fan tokens with a bank card, or buy the fan token you want with crypto.
- From then on, you can exchange Fan tokens or hold them and reap the benefits described earlier.
So, are sports NFTs worth it?
If you are an avid sports fanatic and love to interact with your favorite teams, sports tokens and NFTs may be right up your alley. It is important to remember that NFTs and cryptocurrencies are highly speculative and proper risk management is encouraged when trading these digital assets.
In the end, if you like sports anyway, these platforms should be seen as more of a fun experience than an investment.