Do Sports games in Web3 have a product-market-fit?
NFTs for sports media will generate more than US$2 billion in transactions
Hello Web3 builders, enablers, and leaders,
Last year an NBA top shot NFT called “moments” of LeBron James was sold for $200,000 while Kylian Mbappé Trading Card on Sorare was sold for 263 ETH, almost $6,55,903.
The NBA and football fans saw this as a new way to acquire and own digital assets of their favorite sports person and not just view, while the industry saw a new revenue stream.
Deloitte Global predicts that this year, NFTs for sports media will generate more than US$2 billion in transactions, with 4-5 million sports fans buying NFT sports collectibles worldwide.
Today, while many play-to-earn or the new play-and-earn are looking for their NorthStar, sports gaming might be seen as the right product-market-fit and further enhance sports fan engagement experience.
Kuzote Lohe
Researching on web3 and GameFi
Podcast to listen
What are Sports Games in Web3?
Sports games in web3 are a little different than other web3 games. Sports games take the concept of real-life sporting events and turn that into a playable digital version. In web3, these sporting games are tokenized and NFT-based.
Players can trade sports person NFT collectibles, acquire “moments” or “highlights,” or even own NFTs and share future earnings through license digital assets.
Two most popular Sports Games in Web3
NBA Top Shot is a collection of NBA players’ top “highlights” that are turned into an NFT so fans can buy and own them. By owning NBA Top Shot NFTs, fans owned collectibles that allow them to play weekly games and earn price rewards. These NFTs also give other utilities such as Access passes and greet-and-meet with top NBA Players.
Sorare, is another fantasy game of football where players buy, sell, trade, and manage a virtual team with digital player cards. Fans can buy limited, rare, super rare, and unique Sorare player cards to start playing weekly games and earn ETH. There is a free common card to start playing for free but not earn points.
Since its launch in 2019, Sorare google search trend has been increasing. According to the data from OpenSea, Sorare NFT collections of 330.8k has over 17.2k owners.
Sports gaming in web3 Enhance Fan Experience in Sports
NFTs in web3 games transform the idea of sports memorabilia by enabling fans to own the cards of their favorite players and even game videos. They allow fans to have relationships and acquire, own and even share revenue with the athletes. Fans support their team or players by holding their NFTs.
Fans engage with their favorite team and players in three ways:
NFT collectibles- Sports collectibles are new ways for fans to collect player cards and video highlights from games. With NFTs, they not only have the collectibles but a digital value that can be traded in an open market.
NFTs as access passes- Some NFTs have the utility that allows holders to access passes. For instance, by holding NBA Top Shot NFTs, fans can get passes for greet-and-meet with their team and players.
Play-to-earn- By holding certain NFTs in NBA Top Shot and Sorare, fans can organize their team, play weekly tournaments and win prizes. For instance, in Sorare, NFT card holders can play the weekly games according to the different levels of tiers like Training, Casuals, Academy, Legends, Specialists, and other championships.
Product-market-fit in web3?
Web3 games are evolving and we are yet to see the peak of their growth. Most Web3 games are still under development, and we aren’t sure if they will succeed. For instant, the first phase of GameFi1.0 focuses mostly on the earning part with the “play-to-earn” narrative, while the second phase of GameFi2.0, which we are currently at, focuses more on the gameplay with the “play-and-own” narrative.
We are still early to say that this evolution of GameFi has found its product-market-fit because the market still doesn’t have enough demand.
If you want to know more about the evolution of GameFi, check here
Yet, there is a genre that seems to have product-market-fit; the Sports Games in Web3.
On the recent OpTic HECZ’ podcast, Castro1021 says he spent $500K on FIFA. Deloitte Global predicts that this year, NFTs for sports media will generate more than US$2 billion in transactions, with 4-5 million sports fans buying NFT sports collectibles worldwide. Sorare fantasy game raised $680 million last year and has partnered with a major football club, PSG. Sports athletes are finding new to increase their personal brand and income stream by issuing their NFT collection, tokenizing game tickets, and streaming live games to token holders.
What’s happening?
Season Zero of Axie Infinity Origin now Live-
Axie Infinity starts its new economy with the release of Season 0 (Zero), aka, Phase 3, and moves the manufacture of Smooth Love Potions to the Origin game.
World Table Tennis (WTT) Goes Crypto With Plans for NFT, Web3 Crossovers-
The governing body of the table tennis events division, World Table Tennis (WTT), announced that it is working with non-fungible token company NFT Tech on Web3 initiatives in an effort to grow the game.
Where is the money?
Gunzilla Games Raises $46M For New Platform with In-Game Item Trading Using NFT Technology-
Nerdystar secured $10.8 million in funding to bring traditional games into Web3-
On August 10th, Nerdystar, a Web3 gaming division of LINE Games, announced that its $5.8 million seed round of investment had been completed. The round came after LINE Games' first $5 million investment, increasing the total amount of funding to $10.8 million. Blocore, BITKRAFT Ventures, LINE Games, FTX Ventures, GuildFi, Formless Capital, VistaLabs, Seum, and SBXG are a few other significant investors who took part in the round.
Previous issues
Building on-chain fully is hard; what about web2.5?
Gaming Guilds- The new way to communicate in gaming.
5 elements to consider before building web3 games.
Show some love?
If you like this content and would like to read more of these types of content, please do consider subscribing to our email list.
And share some love by sharing this content with your friends, colleague, and team to help them to know more about Web3 & blockchain gaming.
I will write to you again next week; until then, happy building, gaming, and investing.
Kuzote Lohe
Researching on Web3, Blockchain at Librty