The PGA Tour, the U.S. and North America’s main professional golf tour organizer, is trying its hand on the non-fungible token business. This, after it partnered with NFT marketplace Autograph in the creation of its own dedicated platform.
With the multi-year deal with the marketplace owned by U.S. football quarterback Tom Brady, the PGA Tour will have NFT content created from all player data and videos on its archive.
All income that will be generated by the platform set to be launched in early 2023 will be given to players under the golf organizer’s umbrella.
Image: NFTHI
PGA Tour Joins The NFT Bandwagon
While it is the first to do so with Autograph, PGA Tour now officially joins other major sporting leagues to enter into long-term NFT deals.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Football League (NFL) are both working with the creator of Dapper Labs, the Flow blockchain, in dabbling into the digital collectibles marketplace. Major League Baseball (MLB) has an existing NFT partnership with Candy Digital.
PGA Tour Chief Legal Officer Len Brown said they are excited with their partnership with Autograph as it will be an added avenue for them to showcase the most talented of golfers to ever play the game as well as their role in the sport’s rich history.
The English Premier League has earlier expressed its desire to also enter the non-fungible token space as a way to boost its brand.
With this, NFTs are becoming more popular, especially for those people and companies that want to experience the wonders of blockchain technology.
Autograph Making Its Presence Felt
According to VMR’s 202-page study on the NFT market sector, the worldwide NFT business will be worth $11.4 billion by 2021.
The industry is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 34% over the next eight years, the research shows.
Meanwhile, over the last two years, Brady’s Autograph became successful in adding popular entities to its platform and is now making its presence felt.
Perhaps the most notable golfer to strike a deal with the NFT marketplace is the legendary Tiger Woods, who sits on Autograph’s Board of Advisors.
“I’m very excited to be a part of this next chapter with the PGA Tour and Autograph,” Woods said. “Enhancing the golf world with NFTs will build a connection between us as players and the fans.”
Tennis champion Naomi Osaka and NFL quarterback Justin Herbert have already entered partnership with Autograph, as well as skateboarder Tony Hawk and gymnast Simone Biles.
“We are thrilled to expand our roster of iconic partners with the inclusion of the PGA Tour as our first professional league,” Richard Rosenblatt, co-founder and co-chairman of the board at Autograph, added.
While the company is currently operating under the “closed marketplace,” it has proven to be capable of earning hundreds of thousands of dollars whenever a new collectible is unveiled to the public.
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