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The Sports Web3 Report 2024
What happened in Web3 & Sports in 2024? This edition is a long form report focusing on the key trends and highlights for 2024.
Pet Berisha
December 16, 2024
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The Sports Web3 Report 2024
Sporting Crypto Newsletter is supported by The HBAR Foundation.
Discussed in this edition of Sporting Crypto:
NFT Market Consolidation ⚖️
Data Becomes a Key Usecase 🔢
Consolidation and Resurgence of Crypto Sponsorships 🎽
Blockchain Gaming Goes Mainstream 🎮️
Regulatory Environment and its Impact 💫
Web3 Loyalty is dead. Long live Web3 Loyalty? 📱
Introduction
Two years ago, the crypto industry was in flux after the collapse of FTX, a then-behemoth crypto exchange that rocked the market, in particular in the U.S.
Two years later, regulated banks are partnering with exchanges for custody and liquidity provision, and are also launching stablecoins. The chair of the FED is calling Bitcoin a store of value and competitor to gold, as Bitcoin hits $100k for the first time.
2024 has been a defining year for the crypto space, where even the greatest sceptics have begrudgingly accepted that this ‘blockchain thing’ might indeed be useful.
Many have felt that this year has marked the beginning of the steep part of the' S curve’ in terms of innovation, development, and adoption.
In this report, we explore 6 key highlights in the crypto space and how they have impacted the sports industry.
Key Highlights
NFT Market Consolidation: 2024 saw NFT volumes decline once more, while a loyal base remained.
Data Becomes a Key Usecase: Sports IP (broadly) pivoted their Web3 strategies to be focused on data & fan understanding rather than monetising directly through digital assets.
Consolidation and Resurgence of Crypto Sponsorships: Crypto Sponsorships in sport consolidated in 2024, and then began to see a resurgence with ⅔ of deals starting in H2 2024.
Blockchain Gaming Goes Mainstream: Blockchain gaming had its coming-of-age year, across a variety of platforms, via several distribution mechanisms. Some Web3 sports games were a big success in 2024.
Regulatory Environment and its Impact: Regulation continued to be influential in how much sports brands participated in the Web3 space, mostly becoming an inhibitor to strategies. Regulation broadly began to see a pathway to clarity in 2024.
Web3 Loyalty is dead. Long live Web3 Loyalty?: Despite early excitement, flagship Web3 loyalty programs struggle to achieve a sustainable market fit and closed down (Nike, Starbucks). 2024 saw a new wave of Web3 loyalty programs with the likes of Hugo Boss launching Hugo BOSS XP. In sports, NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and Esports Giant Team Liquid both launched Web3 loyalty programs, and football media giant OneFootball launched ‘OneFootball Club’ – a blockchain-enabled home for football fans.
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