Sports teams want a slice of the NFT market

NFTs are already booming in the art and music world; there were reportedly $416m in NFT art sales in January and February this year. Now, Australian sport wants to get in on the game

Non Fungible Tokens (NFT) are a unit of data on the blockchain that proves ownership of a digital asset such as a photo, video, or other digital file. They represent an asset with a unique identifier that can be sold or traded.

During the first quarter of 2021, sales surpassed $2 billion.

A NFT of a LeBron James dunk video sold for US$375,000 last year. The Top Shots series, which the video was a part of, totaled US$500 million in trades and sales in the first three months of 2021.

Now the National Basketball League, Melbourne Victory, and Golf Australia are some of the sporting organisations investigating how to enter the market.

Sporting organisations aren’t the only ones posed to make money in the NFT market.

Mat Cole, from ACT Capital Partners, said that athletes can make money from Non Fungible Tokens (NFT), but the secondary market for them can be even more lucrative.

“If you’re an athlete, and someone approaches you to do an NFT deal with you, you might get 100 grand upfront,” Cole said.

“What you have to be understanding of is if there is a secondary market for that NFT and you’re not a part of that, you could be missing out on 100 times what you’ve been paid up front, provided that NFT has a secondary market.”

Secondary markets include people trading NFTs after buying them to other people.

Cole argues that not all NFTs will prove profitable for traders, and people wanting to buy or trade them in a secondary market is important in ensuring that the asset doesn’t lose value.

“Is that NFT is going to be traded at a high volume after it’s initially been printed? If not it’s going to be worth $100 today and 20 cents tomorrow.” Cole said.