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Intro Notes, Plugs & Amendments 🔌🔧

So, instead of taking a break - the sports x crypto landscape decided there was no time for that. Rather than not writing a newsletter for two weeks, this edition - which is definitely the last of the year - is the most in depth and longest to date. Apologies in advance. I mean, in this - I’m not even going over the Adidas drop which sold out landing them about 6000 ETH in revenue!

If this newsletter is too long for your inbox, please go to my website and read the rest! It’s now back to back weeks with nearly 100 subscribers gained, which makes me very happy. An incredible way to round out the year. Here’s hoping 2022 will be even better! Thanks so much for your continued support and happy holidays. 🔌Over at Sploot, we launched a beginner’s guide to help people understand what the hell it actually is:

🔌 Early days, but if you're interested in getting ahead of the curve and sponsoring the newsletter - feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or LinkedIn. I've had some people reach out already, but I'll only accept those who I think will be genuinely engaging and benefit readers :)

Stories & projects of the week

Nike acquires RTFKT…

This is one of those moments where you have to triple, quadruple check until you see an official announcement. Nike, which generated ~$40bn in revenue last year, has acquired RTFKT Studios. If you don’t know who RTFKT are, they’re a digital collectible & sneaker studio that has created some of, if not the most hyped drops in NFT history. RTFKT are a colossus in the NFT space. Their latest Clone X drop has done over 40,000 ETH in volume since the 12th of December, some of that thanks to the Nike news - of course. Nevertheless, you can see the scale of the brand that Nike have acquired.

Before I get into why this is important and also play devil’s advocate on a few things, let’s add some context to this story. Nike do not acquire companies often. At all. In fact, since taking over Converse in 2003 - Nike has only acquired 4 companies including RTFKT. So it’s safe to say they’re not a business that acquires companies without really thinking about it. After Meta’s shift, Adidas entered the metaverse - it’s only natural that every single big brand starts to look at digital assets, items, merchandise and ownership in a more serious way.

This is an incredibly important moment for the landscape. An acquisition of this size again indicates that NFTs are not going away. The resource that RTFKT now has from a capital, but also talent perspective, is unfathomable. And so are the possibilities. Just look at the athletes on Nike’s books? Imagine being able to collab with Cristiano Ronaldo in creating limited edition physical football boots that comes with their own NFT wearable which is available to use on your avatar? Imagine the events and hype that Nike can build around experiences and products that require an NFT to buy exclusively, or before anyone else. Imagine what Nike could do with perpetual royalties for those who are disadvantaged to create a more fair and inclusive future sporting world.

More broadly, this is yet another indicator that crypto has crossed the chasm. 

In 2017 it was finance, speculation and trading liquid coins - some of which you knew had a good chance of never doing much.

In 2021, crypto is eating culture. That’s the chasm it has crossed.

Whether it’s fashion, sports, social media, news, art, music - crypto is now eating into every slice of pie that makes us what we are as humans.

Crypto is a cultural thing and no longer a finance-first thing.

Web3, metaverse - whatever word you want to dress it up in a nicer, corporate friendly way, the backbone of this is built on crypto.

One thing which is curious but also obvious when you take a step back is how differently the likes of Nike & Adidas have been received by the broader crypto community, in comparison to…other brands.

Nike, Adidas and many other brands have basically become what they are now by being on the right side of cultural trends and building an affinity with people. What I wear is part of my identity. How I look and feel in something, creates a different connection with a brand compared to something I consume and dispose of within 10 minutes.

Nike and others are kings of culture. Crypto is eating culture. This is just a natural fit. 

With all that in mind, I do want to offer a different perspective. I do find the hysteria and joy at the acquisition slightly strange. Crypto communities often have a strong set of values, many of them anti-establishment at their core. We’ve all seen the memes around printing money, congress in the US being reptilian and archaic toward crypto-assets and poking fun at the establishment when they’re on the wrong side of a trend. But now a corporate entity has bought arguably the largest NFT studio out there, do those two things marry up?Is it strange to celebrate, what you’re trying to disrupt, buying you out?

It’s an interesting thing to think about. As in the above tweet, there is a feeling of emptiness about it. You know when something should make you happy and excited, but maybe doesn’t?I do wonder now if the race is on for the next RTFKT to beat Nike’s offering. Or, a more decentralised version of RTFKT scaling at a pace that corporate governance doesn’t allow. Whichever way you look at it - whether Nike & RTFKT have a successful marriage or not, emptiness aside, this is a huge moment for everyone who’s been working in this space. For the validation and ripple effect alone, this was momentous.

WAGMI United: an innovative way to buy a football club, or a disaster waiting to happen?

The Washington Post came out with a story on the 16th of December 2021, that stated a US group ‘backed by crypto’ want to buy a football (soccer) team. This group includes Daryl Morey, the Philadelphia 76ers’ president, Gary Vaynerchuk and Bryce Hall. They’re rumoured to be trying to buy Bradford City AFC, who are currently in league 2 - the 4th rung of English football.

The article says the following:

Yes, the ownership model in football is broken.

Yes, DAOs and crypto based, incentivised and inspired governance structures could be an answer. No, I don’t think people who have zero footballing background will do this successfully. 

The article ends with:

If you’re a Bradford City fan, that probably doesn’t fill you with confidence. But rather than speculating on what a Bradford City fan might think, I went and actually spoke to one. Here are some key takeaways and quotes from speaking to them:

• The current ownership group are disliked for the distance they keep from the club

• A previous CEO, previous partner to Bradford City owner, who had ambitious plans for the club “failed miserably due to an over-inflated ego and basic lack of understanding how an English football club works.”

• There’s still not enough clarity around how crypto fits into their plans

• “These are community institutions, not franchises. The culture around football clubs in England is completely different to what they know over in the States.”

• Crypto has a branding problem, especially in football: “I’ve looked into it over the past few years. To me, it’s just another form of gambling. You buy it to make money, sometimes eye-watering amounts. If it goes well, it’s great but the nagging doubt that many have is that it’s unregulated.”

• “It doesn’t all have to be about throwing money at players. Buy the ground, buy some training facilities and have (ironically) tangible assets. If they do take over, they’re also going to need football people in the off the field infrastructure.”

• “To sum up, I’m on the fence/keeping an open mind until I know more about these guys, their plans and if they will even get through all the hoops required to complete a purchase.”

If you’re going to attempt something like this, which is left field, novel and new that involves or is linked to crypto in any way shape or form. You need to ensure:

1. The group involved gets crypto

2. The group involved gets football & fan culture

3. There is the utmost clarity on what you’re going to do 

There’s too many of these ideas or projects that are far too grey and don’t tick all those boxes.We’re going to buy a football clubSo what?Tell the fans why this is a good idea.

Explain to the fans, why crypto? Why a DAO? What are NFTs and why?

You’re speaking to people who, generally, haven’t heard of or understand many of these concepts. Many of them, don’t understand NFTs and if they do - they’re sceptical of them.

In an era where the European super league wounds are still fresh - and states with poor human rights records are buying football clubs - you have to be as conscious of the world around the sport. You have to be conscious of football fans.

You have to be as conscious as your fans. With the above in mind, the current Bradford City ownership group say that the headlines and rumours are far off the mark. Their chairman has recently come out and said that the offer from WAGMI United was rejected. According to a Sky Sports article: Rupp has resisted the offer, though, saying his "most important responsibility" is to "protect and safeguard" the long-term future of Bradford.

Rupp said in a statement: "On Thursday I received an offer from the WAGMI United group to purchase the football club. This has been rejected. A great deal has been aired publicly since the offer was made. This, as well as a number of factors which will remain private, has led me to this decision”

"As a proud custodian of this wonderful football club, my first and most important responsibility is to protect it and safeguard its long-term future, while upholding our values.”

Whether you’re a fan of the Bradford City AFC ownership group, one word they use is ‘values’. If you’re a group trying to buy a football club, or decentralise the ownership of one - ensure that you maintain those values. Ensure that you approach a purchase or takeover being sensitive to those values. I’m a strong believer in the future of football club governance being something akin to the german 50+1 model or a Barcelona fan-owned model - but digital. I think that crypto could very well be the backbone of this. I hope this group learn from their mistakes so far. They haven’t filled Bradford City fans with confidence, and they’ve enabled sceptics to beat down on crypto.

Football clubs have become businesses and the ownership model is broken.

I think the future could lie in a realm that is currently being muddied by people who don’t quite get it; crypto.

Those who do get it, don’t get football or fans.

The margin for error in this type of project is incredibly small. 

Let’s see where this one goes and hope such a historic club is not turned into a meme, even if the intentions are good.

Bedford FC: Bitcoin podcaster Peter McCormack has Premier League dream for 10th-tier side

Peter McCormack, famous Bitcoin podcaster, has bought Bedford FC…

Peter McCormack, What Bitcoin Did podcast host, speaker and writer - has an ambitious plan for his local side.

He breaks the ambitious plan into two phases - getting the club from the 10th rung of English football into the Football League, and then into the Premier League. He also wants to make Bedford FC, or Real Bedford - the Bitcoin club. 

Now there are a lot of quirks here, but what I like about this is that Peter is clearly authentic in his love of the sport, and has chosen a club from the ground up and local to him. This is someone local buying the football club, not someone who will be distant. Not a collective or group that offers little transparency in what they actually want to achieve.

In that Twitter thread above, Peter has offered more clarity than all ‘crypto owned’ or ‘inspired’ football takeover I’ve seen combined. Blog post with wishy washy idealisms, PR stunts and YouTube videos - that thread offered more to any fan or onlooker than anything we’ve seen before. It’s actually thought out, by someone who gets it.

It won’t be as easy as what has been set out, but I do think this has been well thought out in comparison to most projects akin to it.Now there’ll be accounting questions I’m sure in terms of how much Bitcoin will be kept on the balance sheet, how will that work eventually when the club have to adhere to financial fair play, what % of their treasury will be allocated to fiat and many more quirks which I’m sure will come off the back of Peter’s announcement.There may also be regulatory issues in the future as they go up the leagues, and I’m curious as to how they play out.That being said, they’re already gaining traction. 

The @RealBedford twitters account now has 7x more followers than Bedford FC do. Peter has started an international brand from the ground up before it’s even started yet.

On top of that, he’s conscious that he himself is green on running football clubs. In a BBC article, he’s quoted saying: "In terms of the day-to-day running I'm surrounding myself with people who are experienced in running football clubs, who understand non-league football."Again, I think this is a good move. Lots of football fans care more about the people put in place rather than the people buying their club.

There will be question marks, however, beyond regulation and accounting.

One of those will be the impact this has on another Bedfordshire side, Bedford Town FC, established in 1908. This is a historic football club with a big history, that is currently in the promotion race from the 8th tier of English football.

In the cold light of day, however, this has been happening for years. Football clubs have been bought with ambitions to make them bigger than their rivals since the beginning of the sport. Is this any different? The difference is crypto. For some reason, many people in football think that anything to do with crypto is bad, horrible and shouldn’t exist. With those people, you can’t win.

Real Bedford, Bedford FC, Bedford United - whatever this new club is called, it’s going to be in the headlines regularly for better, or potentially for worse if things to pan out the way that Peter and investors want it to.

LinksDAO: Buying a top 100 private golf course in the US

On the 15th of December, Mike Dudas tweeted the following:

This space gets nuttier by the week. And I love it.

Golf is known for being incredibly exclusive, with a high barrier to entry and is usually reserved for the wealthy. Enter LinksDAO

Golf by the people, for the people.  Ilike it. I don’t quite know what it’s going to be or what it’ll look like, but it’s fascinating to see it develop. Taken from the LinksDAO discord, there is an open Gdoc where the LinksDAO discord community have already created a framework for how this would tangibly work.

And there’s lots of traction for this already. LinksDAO has 7000+ followers on Twitter and over 2000 Discord members. 

Since his initial tweet, Mike has had several people reach out about building this.

Knowing some of the people behind this, I’m fairly certain this will become a reality. NFTs and crypto more broadly can do amazing things for membership clubs.

Imagine if holding an NFT gave you access to a specific members club, application or service.

In this example, you could have a golf club that is accessible by its token holders/NFT holders. Maybe two NFTs grants you access to you and a friend.

There could be levels of membership, as NFTs.

These NFTs could also grant you permissioned access to newsletters, private podcast feeds, video content - that is exclusive to those members.

They could create permissioned access to other communities, discounts on equipment and merchandise - the list of possibilities is endless.

Could a specific set of spots on the golf course on a daily basis be free, and only open to first-time players? I’m not a golf expert or lover, but all of the above excites me. Because some sports are hard to access, and they’re expensive. The reason why football is globally played is that you can get some socks and make a ball out of it (like my dad often told me he did), and play barefoot on the street if you have to. And even then, there’s so many accessibilty issues when you get to organised football.There’s not really an MVP for golfing. You need facilities, equipment, maintenance and more. There’s not only a feel-good story here, but one that could show the world how to operate a golf course, or any sporting institution, in a top class, inclusive and novel manner. LinksDAO, and what inspires beyond it, excites me a lot.

More big stories & things to put on your radar

• Some interesting things happened during the Adidas NFT mint

• But for balance

If this newsletter is too long for your inbox, please go to my website and read the rest!

• 6000 ETH on a 30,000 NFT drop. Damn!

• Coinbase & Kevin Durant.  

Great reads, great tweeting and more general ‘stuff’

• This would have been the crypto deep dive. This is a founder that knows where things are headed. 

• DAOs have a long way to go

• I like this diagram

• An NFT Blue-Chip fund emerges!

Thanks!

Thanks for reading the latest edition of the Sporting Crypto newsletter. I’m really happy to see so many people enjoying it and sharing it with their networks. If you enjoyed this, please tell your friends who might be interested - and share it on social :)

Happy holidays and thanks for the support in 2021!