There’s a new – digital – trend in sports memorabilia, and South Bend-based Simba Chain is at the forefront of it.
Simba Chain is a blockchain specialist. The blockchain, in the simplest terms, is an immutable ledger that is tracked on hundreds or even thousands of computers, and each time there is a transaction, all those computers are updated simultaneously. It makes fraudulent activity very difficult.
The blockchain can track fungible or non-fungible tokens. Fungible tokens, like Bitcoin, can represent value like money. Though the dollar can change value, a $1 bill is always equal to any other $1 bill. The same can be said of Bitcoin.
A non-fungible token (NFT) is attached to a particular – and often unique – asset. A trading card is non-fungible. If you traded one card for another, you would have something entirely different. In the blockchain world, those assets are often digital.
So, what does this have to do with sports?
Younger fans – and some older – have an appetite for digital sports memorabilia, and sports teams are increasingly using NFT marketplaces to market unique digital pieces and track their trades in perpetuity. Sports teams or the original artist (photographer, videographer, web developer) could get a royalty on each trade. The NFT could give the buyer the right to display the digital asset on the internet or through social media accounts.
If you collect sports trading cards or autographed sports memorabilia, you understand how important authentication is. Simba Chain’s platform can, among other things, assure the digital assets being traded are authentic and not simply ripped off the internet.
Simba Chain recently announced the upcoming launch of a custom NFT marketplace in partnership with Belgian soccer club, Club Brugge. The marketplace, branded Club Moments, will be a destination for Club Brugge fans and sports memorabilia collectors to purchase, trade and collect digital highlights of key Club Brugge moments, creating a one-of-a-kind fan experience.
Simba Chain expects to announce deals with up to 15 sports properties – teams and sanctioning bodies – this year. Simba Chain, which is headquartered in the Idea Center on the University of Notre Dame campus, anticipates growing from 80 to 130 employees by year’s end.
“Everyone and their dog is scrambling to try to do NFTs right now,” says Simba Chain CEO Bryan Ritchie. And while Ritchie said there is no shortage of U.S. sports teams and league’s looking at NFTs and NFT marketplaces, he adds: “The European deals seem more thoughtful to me. They’re thinking of fan relations and showing a willingness to implement this as a total solution.”
Though this concept has only existed for a short time, NFTs are already driving big transactions. Medium Rare, an NFT specialty firm, worked with NFL star Rob Gronkowski to make him the first athlete to create an NFT – a product that drove nearly $2 million in sales.
Big sports names jumping into the world of NFTs include NBA legends past and present Michael Jordan and Steph Curry, golfer Tiger Woods, gymnast Simone Biles, skateboard phenom Tony Hawk, hockey great Wayne Gretzky and recently retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady.
Teams also are getting involved. As part of an NFL-wide initiative, the Indianapolis Colts recently announced an opportunity for fans to receive complimentary digital commemorative tickets in the form of non-fungible tokens. The limited-edition commemorative NFTs produced in collaboration with Ticketmaster will provide fans with a keepsake in the growing space of digital collectible NFTs.
“As fan behaviors and interests evolve, NFTs are a new and innovative way for them to collect and own a blockchain-protected piece of digital memorabilia and deepen their engagement with the team,” says Roger VanDerSnick, Colts chief sales and marketing officer. “We’ll continue to work with the league to identify unique ways to integrate NFTs into our fan experience.”
For those who don’t see the appeal of digital collectibles, the concept of NFTs could still be appealing. Teams could use the technology for ticketing, turning what’s already a scannable ticket on a phone into an NFT programmed to give royalties to the team and making them easy to authenticate on the secondary market. If you’re a season-ticket holder, you might get a specialized NFT that entitles you to an experience like meeting a player.
Simba Chain’s Ritchie says a variety of sports properties from colleges to Little League Baseball will use NFT marketplaces, but adds the applications of NFTs go far beyond the sports world.
“We’re doing this as a proof of concept as much as anything else,” he explains. “There are thousands of applications that can be built on our platform. Any company with complicated asset management could use (NFT marketplaces), including companies and industries in food distribution or health care data management.”
Anthony Schoettle is the director of communications for the Indiana Chamber. He started with the Chamber in 2021 after a long career in journalism. He’s won multiple awards for his storytelling ability on a wide range of business topics.
