Magic Eden partners with Overtime to improve NFT sports utility

Solana nonfungible token, or NFT, marketplace, Magic Eden has announced a partnership with popular sports entertainment platform Overtime to launch an NFT collection aimed at increasing fan engagement and exclusive experiences.

The partnership focuses on the 2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, a national college championship conference often referred to as March Madness, and is considered one of the largest sporting events in the US.

The tournament kicks off on March 15 and concludes on April 4 with a championship game at the nearly 75,000-seat Caesars Superdome Stadium in New Orleans.

With over 1 million and 6.5 million followers on Twitter and Instagram respectively, the cross-medium entertainment brand Overtime has secured ≈$135 million from esteemed venture capitalists Spark Capital and Bezos Expeditions, as well as leading contributions in both Series A and Series B. rounds by Andreessen Horowitz, aka a16z.

Similarly, Magic Eden has also become known in recent years after their inception in September 2017, recording nearly $400 million in trading volume in the past 30 days as the leading dApp on Solana and increasing OpenSea’s daily transaction value in December last year. surpassed year.

More recently, the platform has also announced plans to create a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, deploying a three-tier NFT airdrop for dedicated users to kick-start the process.

CoinTelegraph spoke with Overtime co-founder and CEO Dan Porter and Magic Eden co-founder Jack Lu to get specific rationale for the collaborative effort, expert judgments on the future of fan engagement in the sports industry, as well as numerical details surrounding the asset launch.

CT: What was the appeal of working with the Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden, as opposed to the arguably more established and consumer-recognized OpenSea?

Porter stated that Magic Eden “brought energy, ideas and resources to the table to help make this vision a reality”, before noting that “we thought Solana would be a seamless experience for those who have bought NFTs in the past, as well as the first-timers who don’t have to deal with gas costs.”

CT: What is your five-year vision for the convergence of NFTs and the sports industry? And do you believe that these emerging opportunities are typically created and geared towards the dedicated supporter, or merely crypto-native speculators?

Porter spoke of the nascent of the NFT space, and in turn the difficulty of accurately predicting future events and trends over a multi-year timeline. However, he did reveal Overtime’s intentions to move to a Web3 community ethos after major successes in the social media era, in addition to the following:

“Usually a fan will sit back and watch a match, follow on social media and maybe buy a jersey. NFTs provide the opportunity for real involvement, ownership and in some cases decision-making power […] Just as we’ve seen with sports betting, NFTs are another lever for leagues to create additional fan engagement and therefore another way to monetize IP.”

Popular NFT basketball collection NBA Top Shot, built on Dapper Lab’s Flow blockchain, took advantage of a rising demand for historic sports collectibles with the launch of their moments series this time last year. Since then, the project has facilitated a volume of $881 million, the most duration selling is the legendary Lebron James NBA 2020 Finals dunk shot in mid-August last year for $230,023.

Currently, Magic Eden’s most ranked collections consist of profile photo projects, or PFPs, and access passes. Projects such as Solana Monkey Business, Degenerate Ape Academy, Shadowy Super Coder DAO, and Boryoku Dragonz have all paved the way for the growth of the market in 2021, while newer projects such as Portal and Lux ​​Real Estate seek to bring a range of metaverse utilities to their holders.

Speaking about his expectations of how sporting NFTs could impact the cultural landscape of both Magic Eden and the wider market, Lu noted that:

“We believe the next generation of sports fans will be able to experience sports in a completely different way than the previous generation of millennials who grew up passively watching sports on TV or IRL.”

When asked about the method by which these NFTs will be redeemed or minted, the estimated launch date, and the estimated dollar value of each asset, Porter compared the typical pricing structure of the top basketball game, stating that “the value of entry to an NBA final could be close to $1000, for example,” noting that “these NFTs are becoming valuable assets that are put in the hands of sports fans, changing the way they interact with games.”

Lu revealed that the assets will be minted on March 11 and that “extended bracket utility (whether that be access to games, meet & greets, special events and competitions, exclusive content, AMAs and special launches) will be available upon completion.” of the tournament.” Magic Eden could not confirm the value of the assets at this time.

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