Golden State Warriors Becomes First Professional Sports Team To Launch NFT Collection
by S. Ateljevic · April 28, 2021
The NBA's Golden State Warriors became the first professional US sports team to dive into the world of non-fungible tokens by launching their own officially licensed collection. The move comes amid the growing popularity of NFTs in recent months. The NBA's own marketplace also witnessed a spike in activity in the first quarter of 2021 and was reportedly responsible for a third of the $1.5 billion NFT trading volume.
The main auction of the new NFTs started on Tuesday and is set to wrap up over the weekend. The Warriors Community Foundation will receive a portion of the proceeds from the auction to promote educational equity in the Bay Area. The Warriors collaborated with artists who already created and launched an NFT collection last month, which sold out for an estimated $1.8 million.
"This is the wave of the future," Warriors president Brandon Schneider said. "So we've been studying what the best way for us to get involved and create something for our fans is. NFTs have been around for years, but they've really become more mainstream and popular this year."
The auction was a product of some serious, long-term research on how to engage the team's fanbase. Jumping onto NFTs was undoubtedly a good idea, with sales of these tokens soaring to more than $2 billion in the first quarter of this year.
With most NBA teams allowing only a limited number of fans to attend games this season, the Warriors felt they needed to go the extra mile to keep sports enthusiasts engaged. Of course, the team also has Steph Curry, one of the hottest players in the game right now who is improving the betting odds for the Warriors. Online sports betting thrived during global lockdowns brought on by the pandemic, with many different gaming sites reporting record-high earnings throughout the last twelve months.