The dawn of the blockchain universe has opened various opportunities and new startups with fresh new business models around blockchain technology are growing rapidly. Sportzchain, a blockchain-based fan-engagement platform, has recently launched phygital asset—a perfect unification of a rare physical item coupled with a digital twin (tradable NFTs).
In conversation with Animation Xpress, Sportzchain co-founder and chief business officer Vinayak Yannam shared, “Sportzchain is a digital world for fans, and our idea is to become a one-stop platform that provides sports fan with the opportunity to access multiple blockchain-powered products starting from fan tokens, NFTs, metaverse, play to earn, watch to earn, online shopping, and a few more products that are in the pipeline.”
Being ardent supporters of football teams and T20 teams, they have seen that fans have very little say or ability to influence their favourite team’s decisions. India and Asia, both have fans that outnumber the western world fanbase, but there was no avenue for them to influence their favourite teams, and that’s where their idea of Sportzchain was born – to bridge the Asian fans and their favourite teams.
Their business model revolves around five core products powered by their native currency the $SPN token. Yannam added:
- “Fan tokens – provide an avenue for fans to invest in their favourite teams, and in return, they get voting rights on non-strategic decisions of the team, plus other exclusive fan engagement benefits
- Play to earn – Casual and fantasy games for the community to earn $SPN token while they play
- NFTs – Digital and physical memorabilia of sports teams
- Sports merchandise – Through our merchandise partners, fans will be able to purchase merchandise of their favourite teams and brands at a discounted price
- Staking – Fans can earn interest by staking their earned/purchased $SPN tokens”
To purchase NFT you need currency which is variable from platform to platform. At Sportzchain, fan tokens are everything. Fan tokens are blockchain powered tokenised membership of a sports team, where a fan through the purchase of these tokens can participate in non-strategic team related decisions through periodic binding and non-binding polls. Excess money can’t buy experiences such as – a seat at the player’s auction table, access to practice camp, exclusive VIP match day tickets, among others. However, by trading these fan tokens on the Sportzchain platform, users can reap financial benefits.
“We are doing this by not only launching mainstream sports specific games but also indigenous games such as Kabaddi. Further we are looking to co-develop play to earn games which will utilise augmented reality capabilities for players to explore sports related content, for example a game where the player earns tokens for exploring stadiums or brand partner stores of a team,” Yannam added.
They plan to continue launching NFT collections in the form of trump cards that can potentially be utilsed within fantasy and casual games. Similar to how player cards are being used in Fifa but in this case these cards would reward them and also provide them higher points/capabilities. Yannam added,
“Further, we are also looking to create custom NFTs for fans where special features such as iconic player celebrations would be created.”
They are creating ground-level awareness by interacting with fans, teams, and athletes together on a single forum, using mediums such as InstaLive and Twitter spaces. One important aspect of creating awareness is to help the audience understand how the NFT will be utilised, for example content on integrations in the metaverse and fantasy gaming, how play to earn will work, among other areas.
Their goal is to bring a 360 degree approach to fan engagement in the Indian market, combining NFTs, fan tokens, metaverse, and play to earn. They are also looking to integrate a combination of both mainstream and indigenous sports to transition them into web 3.0.