Dapper Labs announced it would mint limited edition non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of the 2021 AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals and the 2021 NFC champion Los Angeles Rams. The two teams will compete at the Super Bowl this coming Sunday, and Dapper will mint an additional exclusive collection to celebrate the winner.
Each NFT conference winner was priced at $199 each. The drop took place yesterday and the collection has already sold out. As for the Super Bowl winner’s NFTs, they will be available the week following the game priced at $299.
For the upcoming NFL season, Dapper has already announced NFL All Day, a licensed initiative similar to NBA’s Top Shot. Next season, the project will mint video highlights of the games as NFTs and sell them through packs on a dedicated marketplace. Fans can then collect and trade the NFTs, which will vary in levels of scarcity.
This playoff and Super Bowl launch looks like a preview of the platform for NFL fans. The upcoming NFL season will only start in September. These exclusive collections can kickstart Dapper work with the NFL while giving them some leeway to better understand the audience and potentially make any adjustments to the main product before the start of the season.
“Sports fans show their fandom in so many different ways, and collecting is such an intrinsic part of it,” said Dave Feldman, SVP Marketing at Dapper Labs. “We’re excited to be working alongside the NFL, to power up the NFL fan experience by offering these limited edition NFTs memorializing this year’s Conference and Super Bowl Champions.”
The NFL is also launching a separate NFT initiative by enabling fans who purchase a ticket to the upcoming Super Bowl game to receive a free NFT version. The league has been doing this in selected games throughout the season and it looks like a success. For fans, collecting physical tickets can be more complicated than anticipated because the paper is easy to get spoiled or lost. Digital tickets don’t have any of those issues and are a keepsake of the game. It shouldn’t cost much for the NFL to mint the tickets as NFTs, and is a gesture that most fans are sure to appreciate. Additionally, the NFL has been selling limited edition collectible editions of games. Currently, it is auctioning single edition NFTs for past Super Bowls.
“Collecting ticket stubs has always been something our fans love to do, especially for the season’s biggest game, and offering customized Super Bowl NFTs allows us to enhance the gameday experience, while also enabling us to further evaluate the NFT space for future ticketing and event engagement opportunities,” said NFL’s SVP Club Business Development Bobby Gallo.
Outside of the NFL, Panini is stepping into college football NFTs. Instead of minting and commercializing a whole collection, Panini will mint a six-second shot of a play for every player in the Senior Bowl, the final of NCAA’s Men Football tournament. Players are free to sell or keep their NFT. It’s an innovative idea, especially for college athletes, because it is an investment in their careers.
Meanwhile, Rolling Stones will be partnering with crypto firm Coinbase for marketing efforts around the Super Bowl and multiple cryptocurrency exchanges have bought advertising slots.
