NFL Players Become Deadfellaz Zombies in DraftKing’s Fantasy NFT Collab

With Halloween fast approaching, Fantasy Sports platform DraftKings announced today that it has partnered with Ethereum NFT Project Deadfellaz and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) to create zombified NFT versions of star players for use in DraftKings’ fantasy football games.

A total of 13 current NFL players have been illustrated as Deadfellaz characters that will be released as NFT collectibles through the DraftKings Marketplace, including Matthew Stafford, Nick Chubb, Jalen Hurts, Kyler Murray, Alvin Kamara, Deebo Samuel and others to be announced.

DraftKings will release the NFT player cards on October 25th, and buyers can then use these players within their weekly fantasy football lineups in DraftKings Reignmakers Football starting on October 30th. The NFT-powered fantasy football game awards more than $1 million in prizes each week to users, and the Deadfellaz cards will run until the end of the NFL season.

Reignmakers Football is inspired by traditional fantasy football platforms, but is built around NFT player cards that users can buy, trade and collect. Each week, users create a lineup and earn points based on the players’ respective real-world performances, and can earn money and other prizes for being a top scorer. The NFTs are marked on Polygonan Ethereum side chain Network.

The deal was completed in partnership with OneTeam, the group licensing partner of the NFLPA. DraftKings and the NFLPA announced their own alliance in December 2021 as they prepared to launch the Reignmakers Football platform for the current NFL season.

Deadfellaz is an Ethereum profile picture (PFP) collection spanning over 10,000 avatars, each with a unique blend of visuals. Launched in 2021, the project has generated just $100 million worth of secondary trading volume to date, per data from CryptoSlam. In April, the project signed with United Talent Agency (UTA) to pursue brand partnerships and more.

The pseudonymous co-creator Betty told Decrypt that DraftKing’s co-founder and president Matt Kalish is a longtime Deadfellaz holder who previously resold one of the NFTs for 69.6969 ETH (“for the culture,” she joked). DraftKings also sponsored the project’s NFT NYC activation in June. She said the zombified style lends itself well to brand collaborations.

“The strength of Deadfellaz as a brand – that can’t really be said for all NFT projects – is how easily we can apply our aesthetic and IP to different settings and still make sense,” Betty explained. “This is because of the strength of the brand identity, but also the way we can connect emotionally with the characters and their stories.”

Deadfellaz have pursued a number of other deals in recent months, including a recently revealed clothes drop with musician Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak brand—Aoki’s a major NFT collector and Web3 creator-plus with the ski and snowboard brand Gilson.

A collaboration with the clothing brand Wrangler was meanwhile created Deadfellaz themed jeans embedded with an NFC tag, which can be scanned with a smartphone to view an exclusive digital cartoon via the NFT platform LTD.INC.

Betty said she and pseudonymous co-founder and husband Psych need to consider how any potential brand collaboration fits into the Deadfellaz ecosystem and community, especially with thousands of NFT owners in the mix. Does it benefit incumbents or expose the brand to a new audience? Does the potential partner fit well with the Deadfellaz ethos?

“To do this, we really need to maintain a close bond with the people who make up our society, affectionately known as ‘the Horde’ – which is not necessarily necessary in Web2 due to data capture and demographic statistics,” she said.