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Happy New Year!

Every year I pen my Sports Web3 predictions, and 2025 promises to be a huge year for the crypto industry, and therefore this intersection as a by-product.

This year, I will make these predictions chronologically based on my conviction. The further down the list you go, the more speculative the prediction will be.

Wishing you all the best of luck, health and happiness in 2025!

Up first — the easiest prediction of them all is that Web3 gaming will take an even bigger leap in 2025.

This is cheating to some extent… we know that FIFA and Mythical Games are launching FIFA Rivals at some point in 2025. Considering the stats that Mythical posted in 2024 with NFL Rivals (6m+ downloads) — and with the context that football is a much bigger sport than its American counterpart in terms of audience size, this launch is expected to be explosive.

We have also seen teams themselves like the Philadelphia 76ers, and Manchester United launch Web3 games — so it will be interesting to see if that trend continues in 2025.

My second prediction is that we see more real-world assets in the sports market go on chain. The two key areas that I see being disrupted here in 2025 in a big way are:

We've already seen a little bit of (2) this with Republic's offering of Watford FC, which promises to give fans the option to tokenize the equity in the club at the end of the year.

The real-world asset market is already at $15 billion globally, and this is mostly in the financial realm - things like tokenized bonds, securities, etc. But this will slowly start to move into more traditional markets and parts of the world that are non-financial, and sports is going to be a part of that. If you look at sports clubs specifically, you're talking about creating liquidity in what is usually a very illiquid and gated asset.

This is probably the most important thing that will happen in 2025. A lot of sports teams and leagues have wanted to do stuff in this space but have been stopped in their tracks by regulatory uncertainty.

This isn't to say that regulation is bad and has inhibited sports teams. But when you see, for example, the SEC attempting to enforce laws by going and suing crypto businesses in the US, you can understand that general counsels at sports teams and leagues have created more caution inside their walls.

Now that we are seeing that there is going to be regulatory clarity predominantly in the West, whether it be the US, Europe or UK, and we've already seen pretty progressive crypto regulatory frameworks in the Middle East and Asia, I think that globally, we're going to be in a much better space in 2025 when it comes to how comfortable sports teams and leagues are in taking risks here.

I think 2025 will be a big year for M&A in the sports and Web3 space. While the number of pure-play sports Web3 businesses is limited, we'll see opportunities emerge as performance gaps widen between companies.

Well-capitalised crypto and tech businesses with strong treasuries will likely acquire either distressed assets or high-potential platforms looking for exits.

We haven’t seen anything big since Nike’s acquisition of RTFKT in late 2021… so maybe it’s about time we see some more?

So far, we have seen many sports teams and leagues create separate apps for Web3 fan engagement applications. This makes sense. They can silo the risk. They can silo the tech. And it means that if it doesn't work, you can just shut down that project, rather than cutting off one of the limbs of your core tech stack. this approach minimises risk, it also fragments the fan experience.

To maximise the value of what can happen in this intersection, sports teams and leagues have to integrate directly, and I think this year is where we're going to see that, partially because of Prediction number three, which is that we're going to see more regulatory clarity in 2025.

The real opportunity lies in seamless integration. A cohesive digital fan experience that reflects how fans actually interact with their clubs.

With Nike, Starbucks and many other big brands shuttering their Web3 loyalty applications and programmes, many think this space is dead. However, we have seen green shoots in late 2024 that suggest Web3 loyalty could make a big comeback in 2025, particularly in sports.

The reason being is that sports fans are inherently loyal, yet under-monetised globally and underserved from a digital engagement perspective. Web3 can help bridge this gap.

Now this is where my predictions start getting a little bit more speculative.

Nike have seemingly left the Web3 space and are now looking to go back to their roots of wholesale distribution and brand marketing. However, I think their competitors, such as Adidas, ASICS, Puma, Reebok and others are still here to stay on the Web3 front.

We've seen Adidas finally start iterating on alts by Adidas, their flagship Web3 programme. We've seen Reebok launch a Web3 x AI proposition, and we've seen other brands collaborate with the likes of STEPN, for example. I think there's a good chance that one of these competitors will make a big splash in the Web3 space in 2025 and potentially make Nike regret their decision to close down their Web3 function.

While this is a longer-term play, and I'm not necessarily hanging my hat on this happening in 2025, the continued presence of funding and smart builders in this space suggests blockchain ticketing might finally make a dent on the traditional oligopolies this year.

Despite massive hurdles, we've seen promising developments like the New York Red Bulls' SI Tickets announcement. I expect a push from some sports organisations, particularly greenfield ones, to move tickets onchain in 2025.

I'll leave you with my most speculative prediction: Crypto[dot]com tries to buy a sports team.

With their massive sponsorship spending in Sport and the recent launch of a sports predictions market (a first for crypto exchanges), this business might be gearing up for something bigger.

It might not be Crypto[dot]com specifically - we've seen Tether invest in a video platform Rumble recently, and there are other crypto companies, blockchains and exchanges flush with cash — that may take their investing beyond tech. The opportunity to take a huge loyal audience and put everything onchain - from data to ticketing to player contracts - could be compelling for a crypto business with deep pockets.

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