Last month I wrote about Blockchain 101 to look at some of the user cases sport can benefit from.
You can read the full piece here: https://www.web3summit.sport/post/blockchain-101-by-sandy-case
There remain several key themes surrounding web3 that are worth constantly reminding ourselves about.
The size of the market - currently estimated at $6 trillion and growing to $77 trillion by 2030. These are just massive numbers and growth. How many areas of your business will you hope to get 44% annual growth from? It’s unlikely to come from ticket sales, merchandise, broadcast or sponsorship - so why aren’t we all super focussed on where the real growth is?
Virtually every industry will benefit from this technology in the same way that everyone benefitted from emails, the internet and then social media. Previous technologies took a while to be adopted and now they are standard every day parts of our lives. Web3 will be the same. I recall my first email address and not really understanding what use this was going to be - likewise the early internet sites that were static and non interactive. I expect an accelerated rate of adoption for web3.
The market is moving fast and those holding back risk missing out on the opportunities. Genuine revenue is being generated by those spending time understanding the possibilities. Of course there are stories of wrongdoing, fraud and losses as this is the beginning of a tech revolution but when brands like Nike have already made nearly $200mn profit from very simple and clever NFTs you just have to pay attention. We mustn’t gloss over some of the negatives but instead, learn from them so as to avoid the chancers and bad projects that are out there.
The key thing here is to be learning about what is going on and working out how that can change your business, team, league or sport. It’s virtually impossible for someone to say that they aren’t interested in better security, removing expensive 3rd parties, safer transactions or faster ways to engage with your fanbase. At least one of those areas will interest you.
Rather than listen to me perhaps you could read this article by tech writer Ray Fernandez that puts some research into the above trends whilst referencing other industries and where the web3 market is moving. Our advice is to immerse yourself - or at least make sure someone is immersed - so that the opportunities can be taken advantage of as they become clearer. I would wager that almost every smart business in sport will have some form of Web3 department within 2-3-years in the same way they now have a Social Media department. What are you doing?