American Football Gets Ahead of the Crypto Game

Do blockchain and the sports entertainment industry go together? NFL seems to think so, so much so that if this is as successful as it looks on paper, this may be the start of a revolution. NFL has had its eye on bitcoin investments for quite some time, and this latest announcement shows they are no longer content to sit on the sidelines, but ready to get on the field.

Now the American National Football League is well and truly getting in on the action with NFL players being provided with the opportunity to earn some cryptocurrency on the side.

The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) the union for NFL athletes, has announced a partnership with a blockchain startup. NFLPA has invested in a minority stake in Sportscastr, a live-streaming sports entertainment platform, which rewards users for producing and hosting content based on the level of audience engagement.

As part of the online deal, Sportscastr will become an official licensee of the NFLPA in the categories of mobile apps and web-based platforms.

Through this initiative, past and present NFL players will be able to join the SportsCastr platform and create their own dedicated channels to provide live commentary on games, and by creating other unique content that can be hosted on the platform for the fans to enjoy.

Players are being offered the chance to provide commentary and live streams on sporting events outside the games they play for the NFL too. In return, they can earn crypto revenue in the form of Fanchain, the native token of the platform or, they can get paid by the fans directly.

The more audience engagement and subscriptions they get, the more FanChain tokens they will earn.

The platform will also enable fans to spend these tokens on accessing premium NFL player content (such as backstage access), as well as purchasing sports tickets or merchandise and sending virtual gifts to NFL players.

Additionally, the platform will support subscription-only channels with a paywall, allowing paying users and fans to access the content offered by the NFL players. In the future, players may even be able to host their own subscription-based streams.

The first NFL player commentators are expected to go live on the SportsCastr platform for start of this year’s NFL season in September.

It wasn’t an overnight decision, with SportsCastr being chosen after months of consideration among others, as the NFLPA was looking for a blockchain-based startup that offered a whole ecosystem.

While this deal is currently exclusive to NFL football players. However, in the not so distant future, it may be opened up to involve other sports, with the aim being to make FanChain the go-to place for sports fans across the country. So, watch this space.

NFLPA vice president of business and legal affairs Casey said:

“We’re not limiting it to any sports. It’s really about engaging all athletes. The players will be allowed to comment, discuss and cover games from sports outside their own.”

The NFLPA has been aiming to get involved with blockchain for quite a while and has been seeking opportunities to partner with blockchain firms through its venture capital arm, the OneTeam Collective which enables businesses to offer equity instead of cash when buying licenses for player time or trademarks.

Could blockchain be set to revolutionise the sports entertainment industry?

By Joy Lewis.