The Paper reporter Ma Zuoyu and intern Wang Qingpu
"NBA Top Shot" new technology.
Over the past 140 years, Panini star cards have had an ever-lasting influence on collectors - just a month ago, a star card of the Mavericks star Doncic sold for 4.6 million The sky-high price of US dollars (approximately 30.15 million yuan).
But now, blockchain is subverting this form of collection and creating an even crazier collection market.
has completed more than 3 million transactions in the 5 months since its opening, with secondary market sales reaching US$460 million, and the highest transaction price reaching US$208,000... These amazing data come from a collection called "NBA Top Shot" In the game, what players collect is not the traditional Panini star cards, but the players' highlights and video clips called "moments".
With the help of blockchain technology, "NBA Top Shot" is not just a business, it may be a key to creating a new model of commercial sports leagues.
During the game between the Lakers and Kings on November 15, 2019, James' dunk instantly sold for $208,000.
Why is “NBA Top Shot” so popular?
What exactly is NBA Top Shot? This is a game that provides purchasing, collecting and trading functions for NBA fans and collectors. It is a product of the cooperation between NBA officials and veteran blockchain company Dapper Labs.
In short, it is an online forum for virtual basketball card trading - where registered players can buy and sell video clips or moments of their favorite players from past seasons, and the content of these transactions is It’s called a “moment.”
These "moments" are not like Panini star cards. They only exist on the blockchain and are stored using cryptographic technology. Therefore, they cannot be counterfeited and can be authenticated at any time.
There are two ways to get these "moments", one is to sell them directly from the "NBA Top Shot" card pack, the price of these "moments" is based on the rarity of the clip, ranging from $9 for a regular card pack to $999 Rare card packs range from US dollars; another way is the secondary market transaction, where users can auction the "moments" they own.
The emergence of "NBA Top Shot" can be traced back to another blockchain product with a similar transaction model-in 2017, Dapper Labs launched a game called "Crypto Kitties". Users of the game
can buy, feed and sell various digital cats in the game. Each kitten has its own code and genes, can breed the next generation, and is completely owned by the user.
The token used to identify the ownership of each kitten was later called a "non-fungible token", or Non-Fungible Token (NFT), which refers to a digital asset that records ownership through the blockchain.
In fact, when "NBA Top Shot" entered public testing in October 2020, it was still a trading platform with only a few thousand users. However, in just three months into 2021, these “moments” have begun to appear on the virtual auction market at staggering prices.
According to the US media "Sports Illustrated", according to the monitoring results of a third-party data platform, by mid-March, there had been more than 80 transactions of more than US$40,000 on this platform, with the highest price being US$208,000. ——This "moment" belongs to the James dunk moment known as "Cosmic Edition Series 1" during the Lakers-Kings game on November 15, 2019.
According to data from "Sports Illustrated", before February 4 this year, the transaction volume of this platform was only 49 million US dollars, but by February 22, the total transaction volume of this platform had reached 370 million US dollars, of which a single The trading volume in a 24-hour trading day can reach US$47 million.
So the question is, why are these "moments" that can be seen or saved on video websites or social networking sites so popular and sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars?
“The process of collecting and reselling card packs is addictive. You can quickly buy an NFT card and let it increase in value. It is a dynamic process."Franklin Fitch, a loyal collector and investor in NFT cards, told Sports Illustrated that the core that affects the value of a transaction is not the "moment" itself, but the digital token that represents its ownership.
"If you go to the Internet and search for Mona Lisa, you'll find millions of pictures in varying quality, and then you can save your favorite one, print it out, and hang it on your wall. But you don’t really own it because the original is still in Paris. And digitization puts the ownership of the original NBA-authorized video in your hands. "
"Crypto Kitties" uses blockchain technology to raise cats.
5% profit, NBA and players are full of money
"I seem to have become a collector and profit seeker. "
This is how Daniel Hurtado, an ordinary Panini star card enthusiast, positions himself in "NBA Top Shot." The 38-year-old father of four children now spends every night coaxing his children to After everyone goes to bed, he will open his laptop to do one thing, and that is to trade "moments" on "NBA Top Shot".
As a die-hard basketball fan, Hurtado has always liked to collect star cards, and this is what helps. Hurtado discovered NBA Top Shot on other collectors’ social networks while his son was looking for a piece of his favorite player, LaMelo Ball. An earth-shaking change took place. In the first week after buying
, he invested about US$2,000. By February 17, the value of his investment had grown to US$27,000; five days later, he had his "moment". The total value has risen to US$130,000...
And Hurtado's investment is just a microcosm of the many early investors on "NBA Top Shot" - many players only invested a few thousand US dollars at the beginning, but suddenly found that their The account value increased dozens of times overnight
You must know that when the platform only had a few thousand registered users, it was not difficult to get the "Moment" card package - in early February, something like "T.J. McConnell's assist" and " Jerami Grant 's dunk" cost just $3 to $4, while "moments" like "Donovan Mitchell's assist" were even free for a while.
However , when users started to pour in crazily, "McConnell's assist" became $100, and "Mitchell's assist" even became $1,000, not to mention the likes of LeBron James and Luka Doncic. Those classic "moments" with "Antetokounmpo" have almost tripled or even ten-folded their value in a short period of time.
The crazy value increase of these virtual "moments" in the trading market has made "NBA Top Shot". "The company Dapper Labs is making a lot of money, and at the same time, of course, the NBA league that licenses these game videos is also making money.
According to "Sports Illustrated", the current sales and transactions of these card packs charge 5 % handling fee - that is, if a seller sells a card pack for $1,000, he can get $950, and the remaining $50 is the profit of developers and investors, distributed according to an undisclosed ratio To Dapper Labs, the NBA League, the NBA Players Association and other investors.
This ratio seems small, but based on the transaction volume of more than 3 million times in 5 months, the revenue is staggering enough.
According to official statistics, According to the current transaction level, "NBA Top Shot" can generate about 17 billion U.S. dollars in transaction volume within a year, so 5% of the revenue is 850 million U.S. dollars. The revenue that the NBA League and the NBA Players Association can share is also considerable. .
According to estimates by Sports Illustrated, this part of the NBA's revenue may reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
What’s interesting is that the NBA was not originally the “first to try something” in the American professional sports leagues. In 2018, Dapper Labs tried to cooperate with the NFL Players Association to launch a blockchain product called Hashletes, but it was not actually launched in the end. Subsequently, the NBA league paid attention to this business opportunity and pushed Dapper Labs to complete a business investigation.
Morant’s dunk “moment” in December 2019 sold for $100,000.
Will blockchain change professional sports?
In the past five months, “NBA Top Shot” has even affected NBA players.
In an interview with "Sports Illustrated", Terrence Ross of the Orlando Magic admitted that he was "addicted"; and Pelicans guard Josh Hart immediately changed his mind after receiving the "moment" given to him by the fans. He made $2,500 from selling it on the market. After becoming a registered user, he increased the value of his account to $65,000.
In addition, Hornets defender Terry Rozier stated on social networks that anyone who buys his "moment" with a price tag of US$100,000 will have the opportunity to receive game tickets and a signed jersey. And the chance to go out with him and his teammates.
players personally participated in transactions and collections, and spared no effort to promote it on social networks, making "NBA Top Shot" now a phenomenal blockchain product. But more importantly, it generates more than just transaction volume and revenue, and may even become a starting point for changing the business model of professional leagues.
According to "Sports Illustrated", although the players union and the league's top managers have refused to comment on whether the income from this blockchain product will affect the salary cap and collective bargaining agreement, these profits are very likely to affect the NBA's business development. The
blockchain is taking the NBA league as a starting point and affecting the future of professional sports leagues. According to "Sportico", NBA bosses have established a blockchain working group, which was spearheaded by Mavericks boss Cuban and Nets boss Cai Chongxin, with the goal of "exploring the integration of blockchain into league business." method".
Of course, there are still many uncertainties and doubts from the outside world in the blockchain.
Mike McCoy, an associate professor in the field of emerging technologies at Thomas Jefferson University, was shocked and skeptical about the six-digit transaction volume on the "NBA Top Shot" platform. According to his estimation, there are too many "bubbles" here.
Not only that, "NBA Top Shot" itself also has many flaws and shortcomings - the rapid growth of users and the "blowout" of transaction volume have far exceeded the expectations of the engineers of this product, so various Various problems have emerged:
, including users complaining about delays in the release of "moment" card packs, website outages, and unintelligent customer service robots. This is a common problem in e-commerce, but it once caused the price of "Moment" to plummet...
Not only that, the emergence of 400,000 users snapping up a "Moment" card pack has left more and more users empty-handed. and the company’s strict rules require users to go through customs clearance before withdrawing money to prevent “money laundering” and other issues, so currently only about 30,000 of the 800,000 users can actually withdraw cash. Early users like Hutado, whose value has grown from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars, are now unable to withdraw cash.
However, Dapper Labs has received the latest investment of US$305 million, which will be used to change these flaws and shortcomings - all investors include Iguodala, Dinwiddie, Aaron Gordon, Players like JaVale McGee and Temple as well as Hornets owner Michael Jordan and Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive.
From players to owners to NBA managers, the recognition of blockchain technology is changing the NBA. According to US media reports, the Kings will become the first sports club in the NBA to provide Bitcoin payment options to all players and staff, and as early as 2019, they launched NFT products for fans.
"If someone told you before that 'NBA Top Shot' would develop to the scale it is today, you would definitely say they were lying." As Iguodala, who is good at investing, said, "But now, everything has become a reality. , and you still don’t know what blockchain can change professional sports.”
Editor in charge: Tengfei
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