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Intro Notes, Plugs & Amendments 🔌🔧

Apologies for the delay on clicking send this week, I had some plane delays and then some awful connection abroad. I recommend never trying to do any work with 1.7mb download internet…

The run-up to the World Cup means that there are lots of partnerships and projects that come out of the woodwork that have been working in the shadows for a fairly long period of time.This World Cup in particular has felt incredibly rushed from a commercial activation perspective, so I’m not actually expecting anything groundbreaking on the Web3 front.

On another note we had a Sporting Crypto meet up last week and it was awesome. I really loved meeting some readers and I’m hoping to do many more in 2023. Maybe even another one before the year is up!

🔌 We held a Sporting Crypto meet up in collaboration with 137pm and it was awesome. Thanks to those who turned up! Hopefully, the next one will be bigger and better. If you’re interested in helping organise, or just want to come along to the next one, email me on this address!

🔌 If you’d like to work together in a consultancy or workshop capacity, please respond to this email!

🔌 If you’d like to partner or sponsor the newsletter, email back at this address or reach out on Twitter or LinkedIn.

🔌 If you would like me to come to an event and speak about Sports & Crypto / NFTs, please reach out on the above platforms or reply to this email.

This Week’s Deep Dive: Visa Celebrate World Cup 2022 with Masters of Movement

If you’re bored of reading FIFA-related stories - I’m sorry.

The World Cup is on the horizon, after all!

This project by the team over at Visa is probably the most interesting Web3 x World Cup project I’ve seen so far, however.

Visa have created a generative art project where the art represents five iconic moments in World Cup history. Beyond that, fans will also be able to generate art themselves on a digital pitch at the FIFA Fan Festival, in person.

Before diving deeper, let’s explore some of the jargon: Generative art = Art created by an autonomous system based on specific inputs, usually created by an artist in tandem with a developer.

Why are they NFTs? = It’s the only way we can give generative art true ownership when it’s strictly digital.

Generative art and art generally have been the precursor to the hysterical and wild NFT mainstreaming we’ve seen over the last 2 years. Digital art was essentially the first NFT use case that saw any traction beyond niche crypto communities.

And during the downtime of the last 9 months, generative art and art NFTs have made a comeback, with platforms like Art Blocks seeing growing volumes.

Maybe when NFT traders said they were “here for the art” they weren’t messing around?

Masters of Movement

The Masters of Movement project takes inspiration from movement and feeds tracked player motion from iconic World Cup goals into a sophisticated generative algorithm created by London based motion design studio XK Studio.

Essentially, the movement in the goals selected is used as an input into this algorithm, creating an array of really cool looking art pieces that abstract and resemble those goals in an interesting way.

(Not to toot my own horn but I actually pitched this sort of idea to a major brand collaborating with a historic footballer almost 18 months ago, so I’m glad someone has done something along these lines!)

There are five of these generative art NFTs.

There is a Masters of Movement NFT for each of the following, which also comes with signed memorabilia:

• Maxi Rodriguez - Signed match-worn Argentina jersey

• Tim Cahill– Signed match-worn Australia jersey from the 2014 FIFA World Cup

• Jared Borgetti - Signed Mexico jersey

• Carli Lloyd - Signed U.S. jersey and signed Sports Illustrated magazine

• Michael Owen - Signed match-worn England jersey, boots and signed copy of his autobiography Reboot

All the proceeds of the auction go to charity (Street Child United) and currently, there are bids in excess of $1000 on each of the NFTs.

That’s not all though, there is a really cool fan co-creation element to this project as well.

Visa have created a digital LED pitch at the FIFA fan festival in Doha, that can capture and transform fan movements into digital art.

The art is then emailed, and fans can also choose to receive the digital art minted as an NFT.

This is like a photobooth but on a football pitch, where you’re emailed geneartive art versions of your best on-pitch moments instead of photos.

Why this is cool

There’s no surprise that Visa haven’t created a cash grabby, uninspired project here.

Their Head of Crypto (Cuy Sheffield) has been in the space for a while and knows what he’s doing.

Visa have also executed at a fairly good level on pretty much most of their Web3 strategy, even when it comes to PR and marketing stunts like buying a Cryptopunk NFT for $150,000. It’s all anyone could talk about for a few days, and Visa now hold a historic NFT. Pretty good going, I’d say.

Beyond that, they’ve also created a settlement pilot with Crypto. com (also their partners for the Masters of Movement project) to allow for stablecoin (USDC) settlement — which is more interesting than buying a Cryptopunk — and also signals how serious Visa are about the space more broadly. Now that you have some further context on Visa x Web3, here’s a few things I like about the Masters of Movement project:

1. It’s not trying to extract value from football fans and the proceeds are going to charity.

2. It’s novel and unique

3. It uses an element of co-creation, even if fans don’t realise it.

4. The idea takes the tried and tested ‘moments’ proposition and abstracts it a layer further

Number 1) is key here considering the context of the tournament and how most brands are approaching it from a PR stance. There’s great sensitivity for brands about wanting to look ‘good’ considering the context of the tournament but also market to one of the largest televised audiences in sport. The balance is difficult and the approach is varying — but I think Visa have struck a nice balance here of doing something native to Web, good for football and most importantly for the fans.

Number 3) is the most interesting trend to keep an eye on. This element of personalisation without too much customisation is a trend I’m seeing in a lot of projects. Generative art is also a trend that’s become hot again, so combining these two elements is smart.

I do think that this idea of co-creation with an audience/fans/consumers is likely where a lot of the NFT projects trend toward in some shape or form.

Visa have struck the right balance of still activating during a massive sporting event, whilst remaining authentic and true to the values of the game. They’ve done something innovative that involves fans, whilst also creating something in the form o the auctioned NFTs that are aimed at deeper wallets.

More sports crypto stories & things to put on your radar

• Binance have created an NFT passport for the run up to the World Cup. Collectors can enter daily challenges, and win exclusive rewards and tokens.

• REKT City FC, a football team created by the RektGuys community has made its debut. 

• STEPN have collaborated with Asics to create their own sneakers. The ‘phygital’ revolution continues.

• In more STEPN news, they’ve also launched a subscription model for their marketplace. 

• OpenSea have collaborated with Haas F1 to create a collection of branded NFTs. The OpenSea logo will appear on the VF-22 entries of Haas F1 Team

• DigitalBits didn’t pay up, and they’re now no longer Inter Milan’s main sponsor. It still amazes me how much worse European clubs are than US based franchises when it comes to partnerships like this.

• LinksDAO have launched a PFP (NFT) collection. 

• A Dubai based crypto businessman, Haydn Snape, has joined Paul Richardson’s bid to take over Birmingham City.

• OKX, who are partnered with football club Manchester City, have started the OKX football festival called the Crypto Cup 2022. A prediction based game where people can win tokens.

Great reads, great tweeting and more general ‘stuff’ that could impact you

• Ignore the funny tweet, Ralph Lauren have partnered with Fortnite to create a series of phygital goods. It’s very easy to see where the direction of travel is going.

• Polygon have absolutely killed it when it comes to partnerships. 

• Instagram announced that they will let users mint, buy and sell NFTs. NFTs aren’t going away.

• Starbucks look like they’re close to revealing their Web3 loyalty program; Starbucks Odyssey.

• For those that follow your finance, JPM executed a DeFi trade. The future of finance?

Thank you!

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This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not financial or business advice.These are my thoughts & opinions and do not represent the opinions of any other person, business or entity.

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