LEAP levels the playing field for youth athletes through NFTs
Sports-discovery platform LEAP introduces a more equitable approach to talent endorsement and builds a digital sports-based community by leveraging NFTs
LEAP, a next-generation sports discovery and endorsement gaming platform leveraging blockchain and Web3.0, levels the playing field for youth athletes from disadvantaged backgrounds through its gamified mobile platform connecting youth talent with talent seekers and fans. LEAP’s decentralized digital arena democratizes sports and grants all talents worldwide equal growth opportunities. It motivates young athletes to develop their game and compete online in the Tournament of Meta-Legends by bringing their real-life skills to the digital playground.
All over the world, children growing up in impoverished communities dream of turning their passion for sports into an enriching professional career. In the U.S., home to many of the most prominent sports associations in the world as well as a high-class college and youth sports infrastructure, only one out of 16,000 high school athletes turns pro. In regions like Latin America and Africa, where sports are just as popular, but resources are more limited, the chances are even lower. However, many athletes strive for a secondary route to stardom — one achieved via becoming a digital creator and influencer. LEAP uses decentralized economic models enabled by blockchain technologies to make it possible for anyone engaged in real-life sports activities to play, grow, and earn.
Through LEAP, youth athletes showcase their skill-sets in short-form videos uploaded to the platform. By specifically working with young athletes from impoverished and isolated communities, LEAP brings together a digital community of both youth sports talent and talent seekers and fans to help the athletes gain recognition and get rewarded based on their skill levels. The app features a customized video editor, LEAP Studio, with specific filters, sticks, and add-ons to help talents better highlight their individual skills.
Using play-2-earn (P2E) settings, LEAP encourages athletes to improve their skills by facilitating competitions between users on its interactive platform. These one-on-one battles, known as DAREs, showcase talents performing a specific skill through a short video uploaded to the app. Once published, the LEAP Seekers community — consisting of fans, agents, hall of fame athletes, clubs and academies, brands, and journalists — gets to vote for whoever they feel performed the skill better. The more talents interact and compete in DAREs, the higher their rating, or Karma and Stamina Score, will be, resulting in the minting of unique player-card NFTs, whose value, worth, and rarity will be empirically determined by the talent’s score. These NFTs can be bought and sold, allowing the talents to earn off their hard work while also serving as a potential investment in case the athlete develops into a star.
The platform also rewards its users based on their accomplishments with the LEAP In-Game Tokens, backed by LEAP’s native crypto token. This shadow backing mechanism facilitates the user experience via in-game use of in-game tokens only and allows non-native crypto users to participate in the LEAP economy. Without any technological barriers that usually come with embarking in new blockchain space, users receive an allowance of in-game tokens backed by real crypto-assets and use them in the LEAP Meta-Market to purchase real-world products and services to further improve their athletic development.
“We are in the midst of building an important platform that will enable young athletes to receive the visibility and rewards they deserve based on their talent level,” says Omri Lachman, LEAP’s CEO and Co-founder. “For too long athletes from certain backgrounds or geographic regions have seen ‘going pro’ as the only solution to better their lives, and we at LEAP are here to show them that going pro is not the only win. We are creating a ‘Tournament of Meta-Legends,’ the biggest sports talent competition on a digital playground to bridge the traditional sports industry with emerging talents and fans to unlock a brand new universe where everyone has an equal shot at the title by bringing their physical skills into the digital space.”