Deloitte expects an eventual rise in blockchain-enabled innovations and as a result, “The use of NFTs, crypto, fan tokens, and price tag innovations can grow and evolve.” 

Bitcoin (BTC) has been attributed as the most prominent blockchain use case, showing the technology’s art in with success delivering an immutable and really decentralised ledger over the past 13 years. Adding to the years of innovations since then— that saw the introduction of altcoins, nonfungible tokens (NFT), decentralised finance (DeFi) and additional, a study conducted by fintech big Deloitte highlighted the untapped potential of the crypto scheme to open up newer markets for the sports trade. 

Fan tokens and NFTs were initial introduced to the sports trade to extend fan engagement via collectibles and vote mechanisms. However, Deloitte, one of the big four accounting firms, envisions the trade more clench crypto and blockchain technology over the coming years: 

“A nexus will form around sports collectibles, ticketing, betting, and gaming. We are just beginning to see its [cryptocurrency’s] potential, as well as the new markets it could lead to.”

Highlighting incoming trends within the sports business, Deloitte’s 2022 sports business outlook report expects an ultimate rise in blockchain-enabled innovations, as a results of that “The use of NFTs, crypto, fan tokens, and ticket innovations can grow and evolve.” 

“Moving on the far side NFTs,” Deloitte expects the sports business to start soon linking spectators with season tickets over the blockchain. while the initial move toward this goal would mean merely associating game tickets with NFTs as means that to reward fans, innovations around smart catching might potentially open up new use cases: 

“We could see fractional ownership of season tickets and suites and a reinvention of the ticket resale process.”

As a result, new revenue streams will be created for sports organizers and groups as good contracts streamline the processes related to dynamic price ticket evaluation and resales. However, Deloitte shared four key factors that need to be self-addressed by the ecosystem: implementing new standards, educating fans and considering compliance and tax implications. 

Additionally, Deloitte’s study disclosed that NFTs catalyzed the merger between the physical and virtual worlds in sports whereas predicting over $2 billion in sports-related NFT transactions in 2022 alone. 

On an finish note, the financial server suggested sports organizations keep an eye on the NFT boom and its impact on other segments such as recreation.

( Arijit Sarkar, Cointelegraph, 2022 )