NBA’s “Top Shot” business is booming, and the sporting giant is now taking its blockchain aspirations a step ahead.
NBA’s blockchain aspirations
American basketball league, the National Basketball Association (NBA), has created a blockchain advisory committee comprised of a number of its billionaire owners such as Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, as per a report on sports publication Sportico.
Called by the NBA as the “Blockchain Advisory Subcommittee,” the new association’s members include Monumental Sports owner Ted Leonsis, Bain Capital and Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca, Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive and Utah Jazz co-owner Ryan Sweeney.
The announcement comes on the back of the recent success and popularity of Top Shots, a digital card collectible game built by licensing partner Dapper Labs. The card game contains player cards and short videos called “highlights” which sell upwards of $200,000 regularly.
Data from the crypto analytics app Dappradar shows Top Shots generated over $267 million in trading volume over the past month and $10 million (and 121,000 users) in the past day alone. The marketplace has generated over $230 million in sales overall.
As per the report, the association’s details remain private so far, but the group’s mandate is to explore ways to integrate blockchain across the league’s business. However, Cuban was quoted in a mail: “It has very little to do with Top Shot. It’s about blockchain applications, of which Flow is just one option,” he said, referring to the blockchain over which Top Shots are issued.
Rising use of crypto
The blockchain association’s members are Cuban and Ranadive, who owns the Sacramento Kings, have been among the business community’s most public supporters of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Back in 2014, the Kings became the first major U.S. pro team to accept bitcoin, and four years later it was the first to establish a cryptocurrency mining program.
Meanwhile, NBA teams have historically been savvy about the use and adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology in their arenas and related businesses in gaming, sports betting, and digital art.
Many players are investors in Dapper Labs as well, such as Andre Iguodala, Aaron Gordon, and JaVale McGee. Spencer Dinwiddie, an avid crypto-enthusiast, also tried to tokenize his NBA contract in 2019.
Cuban’s become somewhat of a popular crypto evangelist in recent times. He’s big on Ethereum, DeFi apps, and cryptocurrencies in general, and launched Dogecoin payments last week for Mavericks fans to purchase stadium tickets and other merchandise. The team has been accepting Bitcoin for two years.
