How NFTs are changing the game for professional athletes

Professional athletes represent the most physically and mentally gifted individuals in the human race. And because of their unique superpowers, name, image and likeness are often a hot commodity among consumers.

Unfortunately, for a long time, athletes have not been able to fully capitalize on their personal worth.

Take, for example, a Mickey Mantle baseball card. For the uninitiated, Mantle was a famous outfielder and first baseman who spent his entire eighteen-year career with sports’ most storied franchise, the New York Yankees. In that time, he won three American League Most Valuable Player awards, a Triple Crown, and helped lead the Bronx Bombers to seven World Series titles. It would make sense that Mantle and his estate would be able to cash in on every single part of his Hall of Fame career.

Well, that wasn’t the case in August 2022, when Heritage Auctions sold a Mickey Mantle baseball card for US$12.6 million, making it the most expensive sports trading card sold at auction to date.

How much of that 12.6 million did Mantle and his estate collect? Not a penny. That is correct. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero.

Despite all the blood, sweat and tears Mantle gave to the game of baseball, he and his descendants were unable to profit from the sale of his name, image and likeness.

An unfair outcome indeed, but how can we solve this problem in the system while still allowing fans to collect and sell sports memorabilia?

Enter non-fungible tokens, or as they are known: NFTs. Whatever you call them, they are changing the sports memorabilia industry for the better.

“Non-Fungible Tokens have revolutionized the art and entertainment world. Verifying the originality of art, music or videos on the blockchain has reshaped ownership,” explained Jesse Foreman, NFL agent for Young Money Sports and co-founder of Young Money APAA Kingdom.

“NFTs are revolutionizing the concept of sports memorabilia by allowing fans to own player cards and video clips from games.”

Most importantly, they also correct the problem posed earlier in our Mantle quandary, as NFTs distribute royalties to the performer and their estate upon resale (at a rate of typically 3-10%). So if the Mantle card that sold for 12.6 million had been an NFT, his estate could have received somewhere between $378,000 and $1.26 million from that sale.

And NFTs have proven to be very valuable as well. Former Yankee Brett Gardner’s NFT was reported to be worth nearly $21.3 million as of December 2022. In the same article, LeBron James showed that he is not only The King of the NBA, but also The King of NFTs, owning it highest recorded sale of an NFT by an athlete (21.6 million).

With NFTs now offering an avenue for athletes to maximize their value in the memorabilia world, some agencies have begun providing clients with their own digital player cards. This allows them to sell the card, make a full profit on it, and then collect 3-10% in royalties on any resales that may occur after that.

In fact, Foreman’s agency, Young Money APAA Sports, is even getting in on the act, as starting today they will begin providing each client with their own player card so they can start cashing in on their name, image and likeness.

“The future is built on blockchain, and we want to use it to revolutionize the way fans engage with athletes,” Foreman said in an interview with Forbes.

Foreman expects that NFTs are just the beginning, and that the Metaverse will soon also offer opportunities for athletes to both enhance their brand and engage with their fans. “NFT is just the beginning. We envision our customers playing sports with their fans in the Metaverse.”

Apart from Young Money, Disruptive, Wasserman, Creative Artists Agency, VaynerSports and Steinberg Sports, all offer similar NFT resources to their clients.

Athletes are a rare breed. And they deserve to cash in on every drop of this rarity. With NFTs, they now have another way to do it.