Sports Icon—a Dedicated Sports NFT Platform on the Flow Blockchain — Receives Funding from NAS and Partners with Romelu Lukaku
Sports and NFTs are a perfect match.
Fans across the world need a way to “own” experiences. Sporting memorabilia are priceless to them, and they can be passed down through generations and still cause excitement on replays.
Think of exquisite Romelu Lukaku goals captured in video and etched on the blockchain, or better still, the jaw-dropping twirls of Lucha Libre wrestlers.
Introducing Sports Icon: Cinematic Quality Video NFTs
This is why NFTs are here to stay, and Sports Icon is where great, valuable memories are captured.
The platform specifically acts as a link between the billions of sports fans and fanatics with their sporting icons, superstars using bespoke cinematic footage.
These videos are delivered as NFTs, aptly capturing their motivations, highs and lows, and physical skills on the court, track, or field.
For quality videos, Sports Icon will spend two days shooting videos with their partner sporting personalities. The first day will be one-to-one interviews, and on the second day, they will capture the athlete’s prowess on the field.
Sports Icon has revealed that they will be investing in curated personal content. As such, they are hiring professional directors and contracting them to make “world-class content,” according to Chris Worsey, the co-founder of Sports Icon.
Because of their inclination to deliver perfectly curated content dedicated to sports, the platform describes itself as a true sports NFT platform.
It would be a portal through which teams, athletes, and sporting organizations would curate their drops and sell them on the platform. First, Sports Icon plans to launch between 10 to 15 NFTs of leading athletes, snapshotting their exemplary careers.
The objective of Sports Icon is to build and maintain long-term relationships with icons. However, since different athletes have different conditions, individual deals will vary.
Proceeds from NFT packs sales, ranging from $10 to $999, can be channeled to a charity.
Expensive NFT packs will also be scarce and capture the athlete talking about their greatest moments. In some instances, these rare packs could include real-world prizes like signed memorabilia like jerseys or a box seat at a game.
The Sports Icon IDO is set for the end of Q4 2021 where ICONS tokens would be available for public investment. The first IDO was successful on Moonstarter back in mid-June 2021.
Launching on the Flow Blockchain with Financial Support from Ventures and Sporting Stars
All Sports Icon video NFTs exist digitally on the blockchain, readily accessible. However, in the midst of all this, the owner has all rights.
As per Sports Icon, all partnering athletes will have 27 unique NFTs split into nine chapters with different rarities. This scarcity variable would be shifting as the athlete progresses in his career.
To circumvent the high fees in ledgers like Ethereum, Sports Icon is launching on the Flow Blockchain, which is built by Dapper Labs–the creators of CryptoKitties–, whose CEO is Roham Gharegozlou.
The Flow Blockchain, it should be noted, is designed explicitly for NFTs and is already the home of the NBA Top Shot collection.
Unlike Ethereum, the blockchain is highly scalable, settling in seconds, without the outrageously high fees.
Besides backing from Dapper Labs, whose track record in NFTs is enviable, Sports Icon received funding from NAS—a successful U.S.-based rapper, former NBA player Andrew Bogut, Nihal Mehta—the partner of Eniac Ventures.
In total, Sports Icon managed to raise seven figures, though the exact amount couldn’t be divulged, according to TechCrunch.
Sports Icon to Build a Metaverse
In the past year, the portal sold out 9k SportsIcon Lion Club NFT in less than 14 hours, raising $1.4 million in ETH sales.
According to Sports Icon, the objective was to onboard more users into the online sporting community, which has utility such as tickets to various games in soccer, NFL, or NBA.
Sports Icon plans to eventually build a metaverse, partnering with more athletes. In their fold at press time is Romelu Lukaku–the Belgian soccer star–, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), Mike Vick—the FS1 NFL analyst, and Pumas.
