Thanks to the {{active_subscriber_count}} readers exploring where Sports meets Web3. If you're reading this and still haven't signed up, click the subscribe button below!

🔌 Quick Plug! Join us at our event in Miami on the 6th December during Art Basel!

Momentum is an eight-day experience during the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, where fans claim Traces: digital memorabilia, crafted from match data that generate unique pieces of artwork. Fans can collect a Trace from each of the 15 singles matches. Each Trace is free and time-limited, claimable exclusively during a 24-hour window on match day.

Momentum has been created in collaboration with Trace, a UK-based tech startup pioneering proof of fandom using blockchain, with official match data provided by Tennis Data Innovations (TDI).

Mark Epps, Director Web3 & Comms @ The ATP Tour:

Tareq Nazlawy, CEO & Co-Founder of Trace:

🔌 Quick plug… both Mark and Tareq appeared on Season 1 of the Sporting Crypto Podcast which you can watch here!

Momentum is the third Web3-based project the ATP have launched, with LOVE And POSTERS launching in the previous two years.

For Momentum, The ATP Tour and Trace are using blockchain Sui to verify the collectibles onchain.

The number of claims have been strong so far — with over 40,000 Traces claimed from each match on the first day of the tournament, and over 30,000 Traces claimed from each match on the second day of the tournament (at the time of writing).

The user journey, like the concept, is simple for fans.

Fans can sign up to the Trace ATP Portal via email or social credentials — and are then directed to a home screen, and prompted to claim a ‘Tournament Trace’. There is little information on the ‘Tournament Trace’ but it seemingly acts as a mothership for the rest of the Trace claims throughout the Nitto ATP Finals.

Fans are prompted to claim the Traces from each match, and when they shift to the ‘Collections’ part of the user interface they can see the Traces they have collected. The collectibles populate (reveal) after a specific time period.

An example of the collectibles is this ‘Job Done’ Trace which was revealed shortly after claiming. This was a representation of the Sinner vs De Minaur match, which Sinner triumphed in.

Analysis & Concluding Thoughts 🧠

Whilst NFTs have bled and faded from a sales and transaction volume perspective in dollar terms, they are still popular — and broadening their use case. This was always going to be the case. What many detractors fail to recognise is that NFTs are a token standard. They’re a technology. They make digital content ownable on the internet. Just like with blockchain, many have struggled to see the wood from the trees, and it will look obvious in retrospect, but what NFTs do 5 years from now compared to their earliest iterations will look completely different.

That’s most definitely true when you bring a brand into the equation, and in particular with sports, a non-financialised set-up can have great benefit to multiple parties.

As Tareq puts it when referencing the ports Leadership Benchmark PTI report:

There is an acknowledgement from many in the sports industry that the golden goose that is broadcasting will continue to lay gold eggs for some, but for how long and how large those eggs are is debatable.

And in fact, we have seen the beginnings of those eggs decreasing in size across the world.

Taken from John Kosner’s guest piece on Sporting Crypto: MLB, NBA and NHL Teams face significant financial challenges as the once-bountiful local and regional U.S. sports pay TV business continues to melt. Across the Atlantic, many key football media deals are stagnating and some, like France’s Ligue 1, have actually decreased from 2016-2020 highs.

The writing is on the wall.

And if there are to be greater monetisation opportunities — then they ladder into knowing who your fans are. This is for two key reasons:

Where I think blockchain has a strong argument to be a game changer in sports is exactly because of this; if it can support sports brands, leagues and teams to know their fans more intimately — that could be worth 10s of billions of dollars in direct-to-fan revenue, sponsorship revenue and fan-lifetime-revenue.

That’s where I like what Trace and the ATP have done. It is very simple - but if there can be proof that this campaign generates an onchain network of fans the ATP know more intimately than their existing databases — the value proposition is easy to point to and explain.

Where I think there could be an improvement is differentiating between the types of fans through the digital collectibles themselves. I have not watched any of the Nitto ATP Finals and I can log in, claim every collectible and have the same digital proof as every other fan. Some may be getting up at 2 am to watch their favourite player, some may be at the tournament in Turin. As always with free digital collectibles — the proof in the pudding is how that onchain network of fans is leveraged by the IP in question. To make that easier for the ATP, having a tiered approach of knowing just how much of a fan someone is, not just the fact that they are a fan, would go a long way in doing that.

Thanks for reading the latest edition of the Sporting Crypto newsletter!

If you enjoyed this, please tell your friends who might be interested - and share it on socials.

This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not financial, business or legal advice.These are the author’s thoughts & opinions and do not represent the opinions of any other person, business, entity or sponsor. Any companies or projects mentioned are for illustrative purposes unless specified.

The contents of this newsletter should not be used in any public or private domain without the express permission of the author.

The contents of this newsletter should not be used for any commercial activity, for example - research report, consultancy activity, or paywalled article without the express permission of the author.

Please note, the services and products advertised by our sponsors (by use of terminology such as but not limited to; supported by, sponsored by or brought to you by) in this newsletter carry inherent risks and should not be regarded as completely safe or risk-free. Third-party entities provide these services and products, and we do not control, endorse, or guarantee the accuracy, efficacy, or safety of their offerings.

It's crucial to provide our readers with clear information regarding the inherent nature of services and products that might be covered in this newsletter, including those advertised by our sponsors from time to time. When you buy cryptoassets (including NFTs) your capital is at risk. Risks associated with cryptoassets include price volatility, loss of capital (the value of your cryptoassets could drop to zero), complexity, lack of regulation and lack of protection. Most service providers operating in the cryptoasset industry do not currently operate in a regulated industry. Therefore, please be aware that when you buy cryptoassets, you are not protected under financial compensation schemes and protections typically afforded to investors when dealing with regulated and authorised entities to operate as financial services firm.