Sports and non-fungible tokens have had a strong relationship ever since Dapper Labs created NBA Top Shot. Now, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RSEF) wants in. On January 15th, it launched an NFT collection featuring the two teams that competed for the Spanish Super Cup: Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. And it sold out in under an hour.
The collection came about because of a collaboration between the RSEF, South Korean metaverse company 3D Factory, and TNC Art. There are 473 total NFTs, 253 belonging to Real Madrid and 220 to FC Barcelona. Collectors may be in for a treat down the road as well, with the artwork of the tokens promising “VIP access to the next metaverse.”
The NFTs feature various players from both clubs, with each NFT having several properties. They include the player’s jersey number, position, country of origin, club, and age. Right now, the floor price of the collection on OpenSea is 0.015 ETH ($23), and there are 226 owners of the 473 NFTs. It has done a total of 44 ETH in trading volume.
The RSEF plans to expand its NFT collections to include other Spanish football teams. The next collection launch will take place in February of 2023, though the RSEF has not announced the featured team yet. Organizations frequently use NFTs as a way to engage with fans, especially those interested in the intersection of sports and technology.
As far as the match itself, FC Barcelona took home the trophy, its 14th in the tournament’s history. Even though El Clásico has suffered from the departures of Messi and Ronaldo, this year’s tournament still featured plenty of action. Gavi, Pedri, and Lewandowski scored for FC Barcelona, while Benzema got the only goal for Madrid.
Soccer Bets Big on Web3
Soccer, as it’s known in the U.S., is a global sport with an audience in the billions. But its popularity has not stopped it from experimenting with the niche Web3 industry. At Rarity Sniper in 2022, we wrote countless stories about soccer clubs and players taking advantage of the next iteration of the internet. Here are three.
First, two months ago, Web3 sports platform NFTSTAR signed exclusive deals with various soccer stars, including Neymar Jr., Son Heung-Min, and Luis Figo. The goal is to build a “Global Sports Village” in The Sandbox metaverse.
Next, five months ago, Major League Soccer (MLS) announced that it had signed a new player: Ape #6045 from the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection. The Ape will serve as a mascot for MLS and comes with a new name: Striker.
Lastly, nine months ago, Italy’s Serie A brought soccer to the metaverse. The league broadcasted AC Milan’s match against Fiorentina from The Nemesis metaverse, becoming the first soccer league to share a game in a virtual world.
The El Clásico NFTs selling out in under an hour is good for the space and shows that the NFT market is emerging from a long winter. Here at Rarity Sniper, we’ll keep our eyes open for any future collections from the RSEF.