The Innovation Experiment Occurring Within Professional Sports
The Innovation Experiment Occurring Within Professional Sports
As professional sports leagues, teams, and players continue to experiment with blockchain technology, what does the future look like?
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Friends,
The Oakland Athletics made news yesterday by offering fans the opportunity to buy a full-season, six-person suite at their stadium for one Bitcoin, which was trading at ~$60,000 at the time of the announcement.
Here’s what Oakland A’s President Dave Kaval had to say:
“We invite our fans to become the first Bitcoin suite holders in sports. We’re excited to be one of a handful of teams to accept cryptocurrency for payment and the first to price tickets in crypto instead of US currency. The price of a season suite may fluctuate depending on when it’s purchased, which adds to the excitement!”
While the announcement garnered headlines and millions of impressions on social media, here’s the reality:
Opening Day is a month away. The Oakland A’s still have inventory left to sell. The six-person suite typically goes for a similar price to Bitcoin ($64,800), and the A’s are most likely going to convert the Bitcoin to USD immediately after the transaction is completed.
In the simplest of terms, it was a marketing tactic used to drum up a few more stadium suite sales before the season starts.
Outside of the Oakland Athletics, as the price of Bitcoin continues to climb, we have seen numerous other sports organizations and players around the world start to get creative with cryptocurrency.
Here are a few examples:
NBA Top Shot, which offers a marketplace for digital collectibles, has seen $300M in sales in just the last month.
Russell Okung announced in December he would be immediately converting half of his $13M salary into Bitcoin, which has doubled in value since.
The Miami Heat are “edging closer” with cryptocurrency trading platform FTX on a multi-year naming rights deal for their home arena.
The NBA created a “Blockchain Advisory Committee,” including owners like Mark Cuban, Joe Tsai, and Ted Leonsis, to explore ways they can integrate blockchain across the league.
Rob Gronkowski became the first professional athlete to launch his own NFT collection, selling more than $1 million worth in the first 24 hours.
While individuals worldwide continue to debate the intrinsic value of Bitcoin, professional sports organizations and players appear to be slowly adopting the technology — albeit in small steps.
To be clear, I’m not being critical of these decisions.
Here’s how I think about it…
When a new technology like Bitcoin is introduced, it’s important for players and organizations that want to be at the forefront of innovation to experiment.
Whether it’s the Oakland A’s allowing fans to transact in Bitcoin, Russell Okung immediately converting half of his NFL salary to Bitcoin, or the NBA forming a “Blockchain Advisory Committee,” these are all experimental decisions.
Some of these use cases will work, while others won’t, but as the bad ideas are filtered out, innovation will inevitably occur. That’s the important part.
As we move into a more digital and decentralized world, the $600 billion global sports industry will continue to explore unique and productive ways to integrate cryptocurrency within their ecosystem.
Here’s my question for you:
What other ways could you see professional sports leagues, organizations, and players utilizing blockchain technology?
Shoot me an email. Let’s discuss.
Have a great day, and we’ll talk tomorrow.
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