Crypto And E-Sports | A Blossoming Partnership
Esports is a booming market expected to top nearly $1.5B by 2023. Once a smaller subset of traditional sports culture, esports has matured into a massive industry boasting an expected 285 million yearly viewers by 2024.
Much of this growth can be attributed to rising viewerships which then produce more ad revenue and merchandise sales enabling further investment from Esports networks and teams into viewer experience, prize pools, and talent.
An equally impressive sector is NFTs, which according to the Non-Fungible Tokens Quarterly Report Q1 2021 has already totaled $2B in Q1, outpacing Q4 2020 by a whopping 20 times. Cryptocurrency and NFTs are primed for exceptional money generating capabilities if implemented effectively and can vastly accelerate the growth of both esports and cryptocurrency respectively particularly in the digital-savvy millennial demographic.
The intersection of the massive sectors is becoming more readily apparent with developments such as Coinbase inking a recent partnership with an esports tournament planner for CS:GO, the fourth rendition of the classic series which is recognized as the defining iteration en route to ushering in a new era of competitive FPS games.
Despite the partnership being limited to branding displays, this is a major signal for more widespread integration with virtual currencies and it won’t be long until NFTs and other aspects of blockchain technology and crypto, further disrupt esports.
Just as users can gain confidence from NFTs and their underlying blockchain technology, so can professional esports athletes with their contract designs. Up until now, player contracts have been created using documents and software that are liable to changes, but thanks to blockchain intervention, players can have access to immutable smart contracts further protecting their rights.
Additionally, due to the conception of NFTs, players can receive royalty and branded merchandise compensation instantly. Many well-known athletes have already jumped headfirst into NFT including Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski.
A Non-Fungible Revolution?
Remember the days of boasting your Pokemon or Yugioh card collection at the playground? Thanks to the continuing NFT craze, collectors can now head over to the Polkamon platform to get digital collectibles that are unlocked by PMON tokens for a dose of nostalgia.
NFTs offer a similar experience but with the key benefit of retaining digitally stored and verifiable ownership of in-game objects, weapons, houses, anything under the sun — just like owning rare stickers or hockey cards.
Each item could have a unique identity that would be pegged to your wallet/account, enabling secure storage and potential monetization, with price being dictated by scarcity.
It would elevate what it means to own objects in the digital space as users will have the ability to remove them from the game world for which they were found. This has unlimited potential.
Unlike its counterpart, existing in the physical realm, esports is inherently digital. Esports fans are typically also players of the game and tech-savvy — thus more likely to invest in and back new NFTs.
An intuitive digital marketplace and wallet for NFTs could help elevate esports to the level of NBA Top Shot which saw $45.8 million in sales on release day. Esports organizations could mint and produce a myriad of NFTs: signed player cards, recorded messages, personalized team content, in-game skins, the options are endless; easily building off of the NBA’s success within traditional sports, with tech-savvy millennials in the gaming world.
Inspired Growth Potential
Running an esports team, franchise, or company, is not a cheap endeavor with a reported $2M in overhead needed to get a team jump started due to increasing player salaries. The revolving door of competitive games has esports organizations constantly moving talent, investing in new teams, and adopting new games — very little is static in this transient space.
NFTs could inject these esports teams with a healthy dose of capital enabling further growth and establishment, ultimately leading to an improved viewer experience, production value, and talent. Business Insider noted an anticipated 9 percent growth for the esports industry through 2023 — NFTs rapid growth may influence this.
Do NFTs exist in the competitive scene?
Not at the scale it could be. There are however a growing number of brands producing NFT-powered games, with Animoca Brand and Skymarch leading the charge. Animoca Brands recently secured a licensing agreement with Formula E to develop a motorsports video game where NFTs are integral.
Skymarch committed to launching three titles that will leverage NFTs “to enhance gameplay” and likely bolster pride of ownership in their soon-to-be developed MMORPG.
Esports Fight Club, a social media platform enabling pros and amateurs to compete in either friendly or competitive matches, touted blockchain integration in the form of NFTs as a natural progression considering the synergistic relationship digital assets have with fan-based economies.
Sorare, an Ethereum-based fantasy football league, enables users to collect cards of their favorite players to form a team and challenge other users. The Sorare digital card of Kylian Mbappe, forward for Paris Saint-Germain FC, sold at auction in 2020 for $65,000.
Clearly, fandom can have an enormously powerful sway — separating fans from their money.
Elevating The User And Athlete Experience
NFTs are just the beginning.
Cryptocurrency has enormous capabilities to disrupt competitive gaming. From having “skin in the game,” to blockchain-based contracts, and enhanced fan experiences, we have only scratched the surface on potential applications.
ZEBEDEE, a virtual payment platform for video games, is aiming to give players a financial stake in the game, enabling an in-game kill to result in a profit and a death to result in a loss. This would foster a stronger emotional connection to the game as there would be real-world value for time invested within the game world. Staking money can demonstrate exciting potential but will likely remain a niche activity. Despite that, the potential enhancements to the fan experience could be exceptional.
Platforms like MMAON, have taken this by the horns, putting the power of influence into the palms of the crowd. Boasting a massive potential market of nearly 551 million fans globally, MMAON is meshing a growing global fascination with MMA with blockchain tech. Fans can enjoy numerous new outlets of interaction with fighters and the sport such as voting for fight lineups, fundraising fighters, match requests, and live chat functions with fighters and organizations. The benefits don’t stop here.
For the fighters, sponsors, and connected third-party organizations, there are new opportunities for growth and interaction. Fighters can leverage structured data profiles and popularity scores (based on various interaction metrics) and make additional revenue from selling their own merchandise via the MMARKET, a hub for fans to purchase experiences or goods using fan tokens or conventional payment solutions.
At the organizational level, firms can gain additional revenue streams through frictionless pay-per-view hostings outside their current regions, allowing smaller organizations, originally confined to domestic viewing, to become truly global, effortlessly.
The future of sports is in the digital realm and those organizations that can quickly adapt to new technologies will likely come out on top. MMAON serves as an excellent example of how digitalization can bring fans closer to the action and offer an unforgettable experience.
What Lies Ahead?
If current growth and sentiment are any indications, an increasing number of businesses will likely look for ways to cash into the NFT craze. The intersection of the esports world and blockchain technology should continue to elicit numerous exciting experiences for the esports community.
This convergence should prove to draw more eyes to BTC and other cryptocurrencies and is certainly a trend that is worth keeping an eye on over the next few years.
