The beginnings of the NFT development in games sport

What fan wouldn't want to buy an unforgettable sports moment? non-fungible token (NFTs), unique digital identifiers that use blockchain to register media ownership, now allow fans to do just that. Many sports organisations, athletes, teams and their owners are now seeing huge excitement around NFT and are thinking about how to become part of it.

The year 2021 saw a huge rise in the popularity of NFT thanks to high-profile events such as Jack Dorsey selling his first tweet from Twitter as NFT for $2.9m and Beeple selling digital art as NFT for around $69m.

Cards of various sports players have always been hugely popular not only among young people but also among collectors. The football simulator FIFA is a good example of this. In 2021, FIFA's sales were among the biggest in the industry ($1.62 billion), thanks to the colourful player cards.

Now any league representative, sports team owner or just an enterprising enthusiast can create their own trading platform to create and sell exclusive card collections in the form of NFTs.

A case in point is the virtual game Sorare. It is an Ethereum-based collectible fantasy football game that was launched by Nicholas Julia and Adrian Montfort in 2018. So far, Sorare has managed to partner with almost 200 teams to create NFTs with players from teams and use them in the game. They include players from AC Milan, Liverpool FC, Real Madrid CF, FC Bayern München, Valencia CF and many other well-known football teams.

Sorare itself is a typical fantasy sports game, where you can create teams of NFT player cards and earn various rewards based on fantasy football league results. NFT cards can be bought, sold or exchanged on the open market. Some of them are licensed digital collectibles, which can be limited, rare, ultra-rare and unique.

In addition, the NFT-based game MetaSports Basketball is gaining huge popularity. It's a fantasy sports game that allows users to port existing NFTs to create characters in the game. Owners of BAYC, Mutant Apes, Cool Cats, Clonex and other popular NFTs can use them to create new original collections and use them in the game.

Players will be able to create teams of any type, experience and style commensurate with the metaverse. They can use third-party NFTs from an approved collection to form a team and then create sporting roles from them. But it should also be possible to use existing characters in the game.

Thinking of your favourite athlete always brings to mind the highlights of their glory and games or their pre-game rituals, for example like LeBron James tossing talcum powder before a game. All these cherished moments can be recorded and turned into the NFT. That's the idea behind NBA Top Shot. This platform sells NFT sports with video clips of the best NBA moments. The trading platform was created by Dapper Labs (creators of CryptoKitties) in 2019 in close collaboration with the NBA. With the rapid rise in popularity of sports simulators in 2020-2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the platform is also set to add memorable moments from virtual games.

The options for developing NFT in gaming sports are many. As the popularity of sports simulators grows, more varieties of NFT will start to appear. A prime example would be memorabilia, such as OG's rings of champions. Also a unique NFT collection could be avatars, stickers, smiles, tickets and passes. 

The possibilities for NFT in the world of games sport don't end there, as athletes, teams, leagues and fans are constantly creating more and more ideas that are reflected in NFT. We'll just have to see what else they come up with.