Sport Italia, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency for Smart Contracts.
Space is slowly becoming traction. There is no doubt that in recent months and years blockchain and cryptocurrency have been one of the hottest and most discussed topics on our planet.

While we are still waiting for the latest breakthrough and mass market penetration of sport in Italy, we are exposed to a variety of startups and potential use cases for almost all sectors. And once again the sports industry appears to be lagging behind, with no significant news or success stories. But that has changed quite recently.

On June 8, Kodak and WENN Digital Inc. announced to bring KODAKOne, their blockchain-based image rights management platform, to six OVG Arena Alliance locations, including four NBA teams and two NHL teams. According to Jan Denecke, CEO of WENN Digital, “they want to introduce the KODAKOne platform to a creative audience that we believe will benefit from its capabilities and serve as an early adopter. The KODAKOne platform was specifically designed to allow users to upload, record and share their work, as well as being compensated in some cases. Given the millions of fantastic live event photographs generated each year at the OVG Arena Alliance headquarters, this was a natural place to start. "

Two days earlier, Havas Sports & Entertainment and Havas Blockchain announced that they have launched a cryptocurrency-based loyalty program that rewards sports enthusiasts for "fan actions". Yann Baffalio, Head of Fan Relationship Management, said: "We believe our approach to the blockchain adds value to the entire sports ecosystem. Fans are finally being rewarded for their commitment and brands access a new asset driven by passion. "

Based on this news, we have decided to present this article as a first taste of startup businesses in sports, blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

More and more startups are appearing

These are the blockchain and cryptocurrency sports startups that have gone through our path so far, which we have grouped together with regards to our SportsTech framework.

Activities and performance

DYNO: Redefining the sports industry by building the first blockchain-based marketplace for user-driven sports and metabolic data. DYNO has started with its own analytical devices and will open the DYNO ecosystem to all third-party tracking and fitness devices.

Lympo: Lympo aspires to revolutionize the healthy lifestyle ecosystem by monetizing user-generated data via blockchain to reward users by offering incentives and supplementing health insurance to inspire a healthy society.

Playtness: Playtness is fine-tuning the world of fitness by creating an ecosystem for its members, powered by smart contracts. Using the Playtness platform and its built-in reward mechanisms, the fitness industry is able to interact and transact in order to create incentives for its users through the use of PT tokens.

Ufity: Ufity motivates you to exercise more. Run, train, walk, move and convert effort into Fitys, the internal (soon cryptographic) currency to purchase various offers.

Another interesting approach that is worth mentioning, even if there is neither crypto nor blockchain involved, comes from Sweatcoin. They are converting physical activity into the form of passes in their own currency (Sweatcoins), which can then be used for various rewards.

Management and organization

Globatalent: Globatalent is the blockchain decentralization platform that allows clubs and players to obtain funding by selling future income rights to fans around the world. The investment process is automated with the help of Smart Contracts that use Blockchain technology. This ensures token exchanges quickly and securely.

Inoovi: Platform powered by the famous Blockchain that prides itself on being a way to support all upcoming football player transfers and fan experiences.

LFE: First fully integrated football club stock exchange and fan market that harnesses the power of blockchain. LFE technology will create a tokenized market that will remove frictional costs and increase the transparency of transactions in the fan market, such as ticketing, merchandising, hospitality, broadcast and football services.

Peerspoint: Peerspoint uses blockchain technology to ensure personal ownership and validation of sports data, as well as enable access to a global ecosystem of peers and benefits. Their ecosystem will provide a tangible sum of benefits linked to its LaaS: Players, Clubs, Coaches, Medical Staff, Volunteers, Leagues, Federations, Sponsors, Parents, Family, Friends, Fans, Intermediaries and more.

Sports Technology Group: future-proof STG teams, organizations and sports leagues by building the entire technology stack on blockchain technology. From in-house operations to fan experiences and engagement, the ultimate goal is to ensure that data is able to talk to each other, so that every future investment works seamlessly together in real time.

SportyCo: SportyCo is introducing a brand new microfinance industry for sports crowds, while providing athletes, clubs and sports organizations with macro-funding to their respective end. Furthermore, SportyCo allows a direct financial link between the participants on both respective goals. Low transaction costs, based on the blockchain, the introduction of smart contracts in the world of sports and the use of the DAO vote will be the key elements.

Media and fans

Fan360: The first sports community for fans, covering the complete fan experience. Fans can follow their favorite sports star, club or brand and are rewarded for every action on the platform. Each contribution of like, share or content is rewarded with FAN tokens. Fans collect them through a transparent bIockchain system and can exchange them for special experiences, merchandise, tickets or fiat money.

Fanchain: FanChain provides a facility where fans are rewarded with a token that can be used within the sports ecosystem they contribute to and creates a feedback loop that incentivizes the community to contribute to the social conversation they rely on for one optimal sport experience. FanChain introduces the concept of “Mints”, which allows third party entities to distribute FanChain tokens that are stamped with a specific sports team, league or event.

Jetcoin: the main role of the Jetcoin institute is to empower people in three main sectors: sports, entertainment and media through tools based on digital resources. The Jetcoin Institute is creating new channels of interaction between fans and athletes. At the heart of the Institute is the cryptocurrency, Jetcoin. Fans invest jetcoins in their favorite champions and profit from the success of their champions.

Scorum: Scorum provides cryptocurrency rewards for both content creators and curators. Community members get paid to post, rate, comment, and upload photos. For sports writers we have developed customized solutions: sports analysis, interactive graphics and other great tools.

SportCo: Offers multiple ways for fans to contribute to content creation, knowledge sharing and community building to be rewarded. SPORTCO coin aims to be the preferred currency in the global sports world and uses blockchain to decentralize and provide specific tools for analytical overlays, gaming and online multimedia experience.

Stargraph: an app that allows you to receive authentic and personalized Stargraph autographs if you participate in important events such as concerts, matches, Formula1 and MotoGP races. Exclusive activities with real value supported by Blockchain technology.

TokenStars: TokenStars is the first celebrity management platform on the blockchain, providing advanced tools and incentives for deeper interaction between stars, fans and advertisers. As a utility token, TEAM will be used in most of the interaction activities based on the TokenStars platform, including providing incentives to fans and external agents to find promising talent (scouts), make betting offers and so on.

Games and bets

BetOnChart: Bet on Chart is a unique platform that combines highly profitable in-game sports betting with the dynamics of a live match. Modern technologies and the latest advances in AI allow us to recreate a football match in the form of a graph that moves up or down depending on the current situation on the pitch.

DreamTeam: DreamTeam is an infrastructure platform and payment gateway for sports and games. As an all-in-one platform, DreamTeam will securely connect all players, teams, sponsors, advertisers and tournaments; allow reciprocal economic transactions within a global esports ecosystem.

FansUnite: FansUnite was created by bettors, for bettors, and was founded with a mission to improve conditions for sports bettors around the world. We are revolutionizing the sports betting industry by harnessing the power of blockchain technology to deliver cheaper, safer, more verifiable and transparent betting.

Footballcoin: Footballcoin is a football management game platform that uses blockchain technology and issues its own cryptocurrency (XFC) with the mission of bringing the benefits of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to Football Manager and Fantasy Sports users.

Ronaldinho Soccer Coin: The NEO blockchain-based coin targets various use cases, such as eSports, betting and others.

Socios: will offer the world's first scalable and tokenized voting platform where fans can purchase, trade and execute voting or crowd manager rights in their favorite football teams. Made by the chiliz fintech platform and $ CHZ token.

The three key insights

We can observe that blockchain and cryptos are slowly finding their way into the sports sector, with startups appearing in all major areas of our framework. Here is the key information we gathered by comparing the companies mentioned above:

1. The fight for activity data could be won with the help of coins.

A lot of companies out there are competing for all the data related to the health and fitness conditions of the masses, including heavyweights like major tech companies, major sports brands and insurance companies in the world. So how can anyone else be successful in that space? Well, maybe with an intriguing coin-based reward system that allows active people to get incentives, like sporting goods or tickets? Maybe blockchain-based solutions are capable of creating the ultimate fitness and data trading currency that most of us produce anyway? There is also a lot of potential involved in doing something good for society, especially by making the population more active.

2. The "Tokenization" of players and teams is an opportunity for the less well-off.

In sports most of the money is at the top and is not distributed fairly or fairly. Think of all the Olympic medals who are struggling to get enough funding in their daily lives or in smaller countries that have problems securing the competitiveness of their athletes. Blockchain-based solutions offer the opportunity for new investment solutions, which do not rely on one or a few large investors. New small investors can enter the market and own a share of athletes or clubs, all managed securely on the blockchain. Imagine being able to invest directly in a young athlete at the beginning of his career that you are very convinced of. This was hardly possible before, and trading those shares could become a very relevant new market.

3. Fans will be able to monetize their content.

The attention and commitment of fans is one of the most sought after assets in the sports sector and players, teams, leagues, brands, etc. I'm competing for it. With the advent of the blockchain, new communities are born that incentivize fans for their activities. The content will no longer be provided for free, but with a clear incentive in mind, which can be exchanged for real assets or Fiat money. This could mean that a) seeing new content platforms on the way and b) a new type of fan that is exploring various revenue opportunities. Maybe there will also be the "tokenised" super fan in which we can invest (compare key intuition 2)?

Given that blockchain and cryptos are still quite new to sports, these insights can only be seen as first trends. As in the general market, there are still many questions, uncertainties and risks. On the other hand, we can attest that many areas within the sports industry are still intact and the opportunities appear to be great. We are very curious about the next developments and trends.