NFL Testing NFT’s

The NFL announced recently that it plans to explore more of a digital offering with NFT’s during the playoffs, including the Super Bowl.

For the Feb. 13 Super Bowl game in Los Angeles, the league plans to offer all ticketed attendees a customized NFT with their seat number. For now, the league is experimenting with this as a digital collectible only.

“For us, this is all about learning and better understanding what NFTs and this technology could offer in the future,” NFL SVP, club business development Robert Gallo said in an interview. “We recognize that we’re not even scratching the surface yet.”

The program started in November, oddly, without much hype.

According to Sportico, multiple transactions have occurred for hundreds of dollars, and sold fast. “That’s part of what we’re learning and trying to understand is: What is the market? What’s the secondary market?” Gallo said. “What type of people are buying these NFTs or are interested in these NFTs? Do they attend sporting events? Do they not?”

“That I think is sort of a broader fan engagement play of all fans everywhere, this one is really more for the clubs to engage their fans locally,” NFL club business development senior manager Sam Rubinroit said. “It’s definitely something clubs have been supportive of and something that I think they’re eager to do additional executions down the road.”

The NFL is also in talks with Dapper Labs, creator of NBA TopShot, on a similar platform for the NFL called “All Day”.

As of now, there is no other utility to the tickets, but that will surely change as the NFL and other leagues see the benefit of tying utility to tickets themselves.

As we wrote back in March (and republished this month), sports like the NFL can benefit from providing opportunities to engage fans further, and ticket stubs are just a first step.

Imagine an incredible play happening in a game you attend that will be talked about for decades. Think Immaculate Reception, or Bill Buckner’s ball between his legs. 

What if, as a ticket holder or that game, you had access to exclusive digital moments from that game that only you could hold on to or sell? 

Of course, the teams and leagues would get royalties from any future sales, quite possibly the players involved as well, so it could work out for everybody involved. 

The best part is that it doesn’t end with ticketing, and definitely not with just football or basketball.