Deloitte Believes The Use Of Blockchain In The Sports Industry Will Continue To Grow

Blockchain is growing in the sports industry. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - Bitcoin (BTC) has been linked as the most prominent use case of blockchain, demonstrating the prowess of the technology in its success in providing an immutable and truly decentralized ledger over the past 13 years.

Adding to the years of innovation since then, which gave rise to the introduction of altcoins, nonfungible tokens (NFT), decentralized finance (DeFi), and more, a study conducted by fintech giant Deloitte highlights the untapped potential of the crypto ecosystem to unlock newer markets. for the sports industry.

Fan tokens and NFT were first introduced to the sports industry to increase fan engagement through collections and voting mechanisms. However, Deloitte, one of the Big 4 accounting firms, envisions the industry further embracing crypto and blockchain technology over the coming years:

“A nexus will form around a collection of sports, tickets, betting, and games. We're just starting to see the potential [of cryptocurrencies], as well as new markets that can be targeted," said Deloitte, as quoted by Cointelegraph.

Highlighting emerging trends in the sports industry, in its 2022 sports industry outlook report Deloitte expects an increase in blockchain-enabled innovation, as a result of which “The use of NFT, crypto, fan tokens, and ticket innovation will grow and thrive.”

“Moving beyond the NFT,” Deloitte expects the sports industry to soon begin connecting spectators with season tickets via blockchain.

While this initial step towards this goal meant simply associating game tickets with NFT as a means to reward fans, innovations around smart contracts have the potential to open up new use cases.

“We can see the fractional ownership of season tickets and suites and the reinvention of the ticket resale process,” said Deloitte.

As a result, new revenue streams can be created for sports organizers and teams as smart contracts streamline the processes associated with ticket pricing and dynamic resale. However, Deloitte shares four key factors that the ecosystem needs to address: implementing new standards, educating fans, and considering compliance and tax implications.

Moreover, the Deloitte study reveals that NFT catalyzes the merging of the physical and virtual worlds in sports while predicting more than $2 billion of sports-related NFT transactions in 2022 alone.

As a final note, financial servers recommend sports organizations keep an eye on the NFT boom and its impact on other segments such as gaming.

Supporting Deloitte's report on the growing trend of NFT in the sports industry, Australian media company Basketball Forever recently launched Hoop Hounds, an NFT project that aims to increase National Basketball Association (NBA) fan engagement and provide substantial real-world utility for the token.

Basketball Forever founder Alex Sumsky resonated with Deloitte's findings when he told Cointelegraph that the technology is more than a token tied to a JPEG and enables organizations to provide innovative ways to increase user engagement and provide real utility to fans.

As part of the initiative, Basketball Forever will offer 8,888 different dogs, or various basketball and NBA personalities depicted as animated dogs, each with unique traits and different levels of rarity.