NFL Releases NFT collection on Polygon

Each team's official NFT Draft collectibles are now available ahead of the upcoming player draft, which will take place from April 28 to April 30

By Shashank Bhardwaj

Image: NFL

The National Football League (NFL) is releasing a series of card-themed collectibles in conjunction with its upcoming player draft, which will take place April 28-30. The collection, which includes collectibles inspired by each of the league's 32 teams, is now available on the league's Polygon-based marketplace, which was launched in November 2021.

Last season, the league had used its platform to create virtual commemorative tickets for Super Bowl LVI. The NFL's official NFT marketplace is still in the testing and learning stages, but it has seen great results since its launch, according to the league. Members of this year's "Inner Circle" club, which includes fans chosen to represent each team on draft night, will also receive NFTs.

Since the marketplace's launch, more than 500,000 NFTs related to ticket purchases have been distributed, according to a league official. In a Coindesk interview, Sam Rubinroit, the NFL's director of club business development, said, “Those are just the ones we gave out for free, so we were impressed by the engagement numbers for sure. A good number of the NFTs we released for purchase sold out within 24 hours of their release.”

While each NFT is referred to as a "virtual commemorative ticket" for the NFL Draft, it is not a physical ticket to the event in Las Vegas. The Polygon-based marketplace is one of many NFT projects the league has entered into in the last year, the most noteworthy of which was a deal with NBA Top Shot developer Dapper Labs.

Although NFL is still developing its official blockchain partnerships policy, there have been some major developments relating to fan tokens and crypto endorsements recently. The league's players association (NFLPA) has also partnered with companies in the crypto space, such as sports betting company DraftKings and the metaverse game Upland.

The writer is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash

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