DraftKings is moving into the NFT space. The company announced earlier this week that they have partnered with Autograph, Tom Brady’s digital collectible firm, with plans to launch an NFT marketplace. NFTs, short for non-fungible tokens, are digital assets on a blockchain. The first launch will be called “Pre-Season Access” and will feature athletes from the Autograph roster, which includes Tom Brady, Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, Tony Hawk, Naomi Osaka, and others. The DraftKings marketplace will not only support initial launches, but also secondary market sales. DraftKings plans to share more information about the NFT marketplace next month. In related news, privately-held OpenSea announced a $100 million Series B funding round this week, valuing the NFT marketplace at $1.5 billion.
Matias’ Take: We’ve seen many companies make the move into NFTs over the last year, and in many cases, I felt the decision was based around “hype” and not utility. But in this case with DraftKings, I’m a fan. I’ve followed the NFT space closely for the past three years and one trend has remained consistent: sports collectibles sell. From the early NFT days to now, digital sports collectibles have performed well, and one could even credit a large part of the mainstream expansion of NFTs in 2021 to the “sports category” with the rapid growth of NBA Top Shot. As I mentioned on Twitter, the typical DraftKings user is most likely both: (1) passionate about sports, and (2) a speculator. Both of these characteristics also make a strong NFT customer. As someone who has purchased NFTs in the past and enjoys taking part in the DraftKings Milly Maker, I personally plan on being active in the DraftKings NFT Marketplace once live.
