JAKARTA - Australian media company, Basketball Forever, has announced an NFT project entitled Hoop Hounds. This is part of their effort to increase NBA fan engagement and provide substantial real-world utility for the token.
Critics of the NFT have consistently targeted the token's perceived ineffective nature, with "right click save" memes circulating. However, there has recently been an increase in utility-focused NFT projects, such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Top Shot, where holders are granted exclusive access to real-world events and products.
Basketball Forever, a subsidiary of the NBA-focused sports media company Forever Network, has developed a high level of engagement on social media in Australia over the past four years. They are also trying to improve that approach with NFT.
Basketball Forever will offer a total of 8,888 different "hounds". The company expects this NFT to be available in the next six weeks.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Basketball Forever founder Alex Sumsky, said that his company will use NFT "all in". he also said that the technology is more than just a token tied to a JPG and allows organizations to provide innovative ways to increase user engagement and give fans real utility.
Users who score NFT Hoop Hounds, for example, receive memorabilia and collectibles from real-world fans, no matter where they live in the world.
“In the phase 1 roadmap, users will receive physical goods, merchandise, and memorabilia that are directly related to the unique nature of their NFTs.”
If the user scores a hound that wears a certain item, they gain the ability to claim the corresponding physical item in real life. Certain traits and hounds will be associated with various NBA season triggers which will result in certain holders being sent to NBA games including flight and accommodation facilities.
Sumsky added that the physical merchandise and NBA experience offered to users is only the first part of the project.
“The bigger game is phase 2 of our roadmap – hound ownership gives users access to a daily pool of merchandise, memorabilia and cash prizes all played out in the form of a fan engagement app,” said Sumsky.
Sumsky explained that Basketball Forever has been running a non-blockchain-based version of the app, called VOAT, with a high level of engagement. App users log in daily to answer five questions about NBA issues and enter to win prizes.
“Moving to NFT provides more opportunities,” Sumsky said. “NFT and digital maintenance give companies and organizations like Forever Network the ability to learn more about what our users are looking for in terms of engaging with the sports they love, but more importantly it allows us to streamline delivery of real-life items and experiences.”
NFT is now attracting mainstream interest with an annual market report from NonFungible which finds that the total value of all NFT transactions worldwide will already exceed more than US$17 billion (Rp244 trillion) in 2021, up from US$82.5 million (Rp1 billion). .2 trillion) in 2020.
The report also shows that “NFT'' was chosen as the Collins Dictionary's word of the year for 2021.
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