Cricket non-fungible token (NFT) platform Rario announced a $120 million Series A round of funding. The investment was led by the venture division of fantasy sports platform Dream Sports.
Last week, Rario signed an NFT partnership with the Australian Cricket Association and Cricket Australia. In addition, it has deals with six cricket associations and a roster of over 900 cricketers.
This is also the largest investment in the cricket NFT sector, which has gained significant attention in the last few months. The other major player in cricket NFTs is Dapper Labs’ backed FanCraze.
The two NFT platforms focus exclusively on developing cricket-based digital experiences, through the metaverse and NFTs. FanCraze managed to get a license with the International Cricket Council (ICC) for video highlights as NFTs. The international scope of the ICC enables the organization to attract a wider audience than the Australian cricket market and Rario’s other properties.
A partnership with the ICC could give FanCraze a strong competitive advantage compared to Rario. However, through Dream Capital’s investment in the Rario NFT initiative, there’s the potential to reach the 140 million users of Dream Sports fantasy platform. Potentially, Rario could go even further by becoming a strategic partner for Dream Sports’ and creating an NFT cricket fantasy sports game, similar to Sorare’s main product. Sorare users buy or trade NFTs to use in their fantasy teams.
“Cricket is the 2nd largest sport in the world with more than 1.5bn fans globally,” said Rario’s CEO, Ankit Wadhwa. “NFTs are creating new forms of engagement allowing fans to own and trade digital collectibles. Rario’s global cricket NFT ecosystem will be further strengthened by the 140M sports fans on Dream Sports.”
Previous investors in Rario included Animoca Brands, Presight Capital, and Kingsway Capital. In addition to Dream Sports’ Dream Capital, venture capital firm Alpha Wave Global also participated in this round of funding.
Meanwhile, FanCraze is rumored to be raising $100 million in a round of funding.
