ATP Tour Launch Collect: It All Adds Up

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‘Collect’ Overview 🎨 

‘Collect: It All Adds Up’ is a new playable collection game launched by the ATP Tour in collaboration with Trace.

The campaign is across 4 tournaments: The ATP Masters 1000 events in Canada, Cincinnati and Shanghai, and the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals in Turin.

Here is a quick overview of how it works:

• Each tournament unlocks a digital fan credential: an authentic memento from the event

• Fans can collect individual matches – available for just 24 hours on match day

• This builds a 'record of fandom’

• Special edition storytelling collectibles will also be released throughout the season – capturing milestones, shared moments, and the meta-narratives that define the sport

This is not the first time the ATP Tour have experimented using blockchain technology.

In 2022 they launched ‘LOVE’ — an NFT art collection in collaboration with Martin Grasser (Creator of the Twitter logo) and NFT Art platform Art Blocks.

The following year, in 2023, they launched POSTERS in collaboration with artist Honor Titus, which are fan-customisable onchain digital posters.

And in late 2024, the ATP Tour partnered with Trace to launch ‘Momentum’ - which saw 75K fans collect >750K matches in eight days, driving 25% growth in the known fanbase. This was a very similar concept to ‘Collect’, with ‘Momentum’ focusing on the Nitto ATP Tour Finals in Turin.

After its success, Mark Epps, Director Comms & Web3 said on the Sporting Crypto Podcast earlier this year:

“What is it that we can do season-long, after finding out so much more about our fans in 8 days?”

In that episode, he teased the idea:

- A blockchain-based persistent ID
- 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 helps you understand your fans better
- 𝘛𝘰 engage your partners and sponsors in more meaningful ways
- 𝘈𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 digital silos

And ‘Collect’ is the next stage in that journey.

User Journey 📱 

The user journey is simple.

1. On the home screen, fans have the option to sign up / login

2. After logging in — you are prompted to ‘claim’ your ATP Masters 1000 Canada digital tournament pass

3. Fans ‘claim’ the digital tournament pass, and are then prompted to ‘claim’ matches

4. Fans then claim matches individually in a simple ‘click-to-claim’ flow

5. Fans have access to a ‘quest log’ where they are able to track their progress in a gamified way, with quest completion giving fans the chance to win exclusive rewards

Analysis 🧠

“I owe my life to my hobbies — especially stamp collecting”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

There is something nostalgic, poetic and magical about collecting memorabilia.

It’s an art, and something that we have not yet recreated successfully in the digital domain.

And it’s especially something we haven’t digitised well in the sports industry.

When I asked Mark Epps, Director of Web3 & comms, about the ‘Collect’ campaign, he said:

In the instant gratification blender that we find ourselves in means that products have to tug on that nostalgic heart string, whilst also creating a front-end that speaks to the modern-day fan.

So where does blockchain play a part in solving this equation?

Epps said that they are proud that the ATP Tour “might be the first sports rights holder who has launched a credential which at the time of launch also has a Web3 component."

Tareq Nazlawy, CEO & Co-Founder of Trace followed this by saying their “product is really about making that identity as readable as possible across the internet. And that's why the ID should be on chain."

If we consider that:

1. Art, collecting, and sports are facets of humanity

2. That feeling of nostalgia will always be powerful, no matter what the conduit is (digital vs physical)

3. Our expression on the internet as humans is throttled by siloed experiences

Then blockchain just makes sense.

A ledger that proves authenticity, ownership and executes trustlessly is important.

Provably scarce assets, collected and vaulted digitally, are one piece of this puzzle.

But the wider piece, which speaks to a digital ID or passport onchain that you have sovereignty over, and can port across the web, is the bigger picture here.

Concluding Thoughts 💭 

(1) The commoditisation of fandom is here

Fandom is being commoditised to some extent.

Of course, this is not true to a superfan who has had fandom passed down to them familially or through an early experience.

But with the rise of greenfield sports, more games and competition in every elite sport, there is a weariness among fans. An exhaustion and fatigue. It’s always on and unrelenting. There is only so much time you can spend watching or engaging in sport.

And so if the baseline consumption experience is similar, and the digital component is always underwhelming, then what is the way sports teams and leagues stand out?

(2) Blockchain is here and ready

The tech is no longer the issue.

Blockchain is here and ready. There are mainstream examples (stablecoins) of the tech being utilised among millions, sometimes 10s of millions of consumers. Banks are offering crypto products. This ‘thing’ is here to stay; there is now 0% doubt about that.

So, as the tech flows downstream from shady actors to speculators and now the financial innovators, what will be the consumer stack that engages fans in a unique or simply better way?

(3) Sports teams and leagues are behind digitally

"The mission of what we're doing is to help us understand who our fans are. You understand that we have a huge global audience that is largely unknown and unmarketable to”

Epps outlined the mission statement behind their Web3 strategy.

1. They don’t know enough of their global audience

2. They don’t know their known fans well enough

3. They can’t market well enough to either (1) or (2)

So how do you create a sophisticated ‘Know-my-fan’ stack onchain, that gives you easier connectivity to your wider partner ecosystem?

(4) Digital recognition might be the first building block

As per Nazlawy:

"We had started the company really with this basic idea that being a true fan is worthy of recognition and that by giving a fan something before you're asking for something, that value exchange is different to what's been done before."

This facet of the stack is not the be-all and end-all.

But working back from a habitual ritual that you are forming amongst fans primarily in a digital forum, and then taking them down the funnel to monetise more freely and easily, is the right approach. This is specifically true when it comes to:

1. Sponsors who do not want the tech investment required to do this on Web2 rails, especially considering their time-specific commitments to a sports partner

2. Teams and Leagues with primitive tech stacks who need time to build the foundations

If the goal is:

- A blockchain-based persistent ID
- 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 helps you understand your fans better
- 𝘛𝘰 engage your partners and sponsors in more meaningful ways
- 𝘈𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 digital silos

What is the right first step for a sports league or team to build that out, within the context of their organisation?

More Sports & Web3 Stories

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• Sports Illustrated Tickets are the Washington Nationals’ New Official Fan Experience Partner (Read more here)

• Stake are the new sponsors of Team Vitality (Read more here)

• QPR have partnered with TokenFi (Read more here)

• You Can Now Buy NBA Top Shot NFTs From Vending Machines in Japan (Read more here)

General ‘Stuff’ that Could Impact You

• Kraken Eyes $500M Fundraise at $15B Valuation Ahead of Potential IPO (Read more here)

• PayPal to let U.S. merchants accept payment in more than 100 cryptocurrencies (Read more here)

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