DraftKings has announced the ‘DraftKings Marketplace’, a new initiative from the firm to enable consumers to “buy, sell and trade digital collectibles across sports, entertainment, and culture.” Users already onboarded with DraftKings accounts are expected to be able to use their already-established sign-in credentials to access the new marketplace when it is available.
“Sign” Me Up
The DraftKings Marketplace will be established as part of a newly-formed partnership with NFT platform Autograph. Autograph has a stacked founding partner roster in sport, including Tom Brady, Tiger Woods, Naomi Osaka, Tony Hawk, and more. The partnership will engage DraftKings as “the exclusive distributor of NFT content” for Autograph, allowing the DraftKings Marketplace to be host to the first sports-related NFTs that Autograph releases.
That first sports release will be titled the “Pre-Season Access Collection” and will feature NFTs of legendary athletes on Autograph’s roster, and potentially allow fans to secure early access to future releases. A timeline for that series has yet to be disclosed, however general entertainment NFTs released through Autograph and major studio partner Lionsgate are expected to release this fall. The Marketplace is stated to debut “later this summer.” The market is also expected to support secondary transactions.
With the kickoff to the upcoming NFL season less than 60 days away, if the “Pre-Season” in this collection is referring to American football, speculation suggests that we could see DraftKings unveil sports NFTs within the next one to two months.
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Sports Betting Meets NFTs?
It remains to be seen how DraftKings could possibly incorporate NFTs into their traditional business model, but this week’s announcement certainly suggests that we could see it in the future. DraftKings also recently teamed up with VaynerMedia as an in-house agency; VaynerMedia recently established VaynerNFT as a new company division and founder Gary Vaynerchuk has been an outspoken NFT advocate.
“NFTs are the perfect medium to connect users to both the things they love and those who share those interests, and we want to leverage today’s incredible partnerships to provide continued value to our community,” said Autograph CEO and Founder Dillon Rosenblatt.
DraftKings has continued to be a hot topic lately. Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has been buying the firm’s stock left and right, including a stock purchase last week of nearly $7M dollars worth of DKNG shares. The investment firm also recently released a bullish report on the market at large, titled “The Online Sports Betting Opportunity.” Wood is a featured speaker at this week’s “The B Word” conference, a Bitcoin-focused discussion that includes the likes of Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk.
DraftKings has been a hot topic amidst continued market growth in the sports betting scene. | Source: NASDAQ: DKNG on TradingView.com
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Featured image from Pixabay, Charts from TradingView.com
