By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – The Premier League could launch its non-fungible token (NFT) project as soon as the start of next season, according to a report.
The Athletic reported that the NFT project, named “Premier League Digital Collectibles” could begin by the start of the 2022/23 season, which is scheduled to begin in August 2022.
Rumours that the Premier League - which is the richest football league in the world - was considering entering the NFT space first surfaced in May this year and discussions reportedly took place in June, when clubs gave the league permissions to explore the NFT market.
NBA Top Shot
It is expected that the Premier League’s own NFT project will resemble something similar to NBA Top Shot, the NBA’s own digital collectible project.
NBA Top Shot runs on the Flow blockchain and was developed by NFT provider Dapper Labs.
It is a blockchain-based platform that allows fans of the NBA to buy, sell and trade numbered versions of officially licensed video highlights. Some have described it as a modern-day version of trading cards.
NBA Top Shot is the fourth most popular NFT project by sales volume according to data from CryptoSlam.io, with total sales volume on NBA Top Shot standing at $747 million.
It’s clear that the Premier League would have looked at the trading volume from NBA Top Shot and decided that it could be a good way of making up the revenue shortfall that the league and clubs have faced due to the pandemic.
Deloitte estimated that Premier League clubs’ combined revenue for the 2019/20 season fell for the first time ever, with revenue dropping by 13% to £4.5 billion. With football clubs playing games without fans for the majority of the 2020/21 season, it is expected that club revenues were also hampered during the period.