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GM. Welcome to The Hype Report where we break down the latest news, stories & happenings around sports & web3.

Here's What You Need To Know This Week 📝 

• Sorare Forms An Exclusive Partnership With The Premier League

• Metaverse Platform LootMogul Expands With Six Sport Partnership

• EBay Wants NFTs To Connect Fans With Sports Stars

• Quick Hits & Founder Feature Of The Week

Let's Dive Into It 🤿

Sorare Forms An Exclusive Partnership With The Premier League ⚽

Sorare is putting their money where their mouth is.

The NFT fantasy sports game, now worth $4.3 billion, signed a multi-year deal with the Premier League, the world’s top soccer league, to create officially licensed player cards.

The two have been in talks for a while but finally reached an agreement.

Here's a quick rundown of what we know about the deal:

• Sorare made an upfront downpayment to the league for licensing rights

• The deal is supposedly worth $37 million per year

• The digital card sales are a percentage split between Sorare and the Premier League

Collectors on Sorare will be able to mint, trade, purchase, and use official Premier League-licensed NFTs from all 20 clubs.

Sorare, which now has over 3 million users worldwide, is also supposedly launching two new features in the game:

• The ability to compete with league-specific player cards

• A “financial fair play” feature that prevents users from selecting all-star teams.

Sorare's co-founder and CEO Nicolas Julia has been the driving force and visionary behind this monster of a company.

Here's what he said about the partnership:

“The Premier League is a truly global competition and has been the home to so many iconic moments and players over the last 30 years. As football fans ourselves, this partnership is something we’ve dreamt of since we founded the business. It’s a major milestone for us as we pursue our goal to build a compelling global sports community for fans and we’re extremely proud to have now partnered with three of the biggest sports leagues in the world: the Premier League, NBA, and MLB. We’re incredibly excited and can’t wait to see fans play with Premier League cards in our tournaments.”

This adds to Sorare's already massive catalog of deals with sports leagues and teams.

Aside from partnerships with Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga, and Italy’s Serie A, they also have deals with the MLB and NBA.

Why does this matter?

Gaming and fantasy sports have been pivotal in driving the mainstream adoption of web3.

Sorare is leveraging NFTs to help deepen the connection between fans and their favorite teams and athletes while giving them opportunities to win money.

Partnerships like the one above help push this goal forward and give fans more opportunities to engage with their favorite players and teams.

At the same time, Sorare is doubling down on tying real-world memorabilia and experiences to its digital collectibles in 2023.

Fantasy users on Sorare can win tournaments to access VIP match tickets, signed jerseys, game balls, and other real-world fan experiences.

The future of NFTs in sports is not digital only.

It is a combination of digital, digital/physical, and digital/experiential.

Metaverse Platform LootMogul Expands With Six Sport Partnership 🏟️

LootMogul is going global.

This week they partnered with UK-based sports marketing and commercial rights agency Six Sport to support their growth plans and increase the adoption of blockchain gaming for sports organizations and athletes.

LootMogul is regarded as one of the world's top sports metaverses.

Basically what they do is give athletes, sports teams, and brands the ability to create virtual 'sports cities' to engage with fans, and offer in-real-life rewards.

Currently, they have signed up 241+ professional athletes from NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, UFC, etc...

They're also in the process of onboarding 1.5M+ high-school and college athletes.

In LootMogul, fans can participate in competitions, training academies, and games as well as buy digital and real-life merchandise.

With this partnership, LootMogul is focused on expanding the web3 community by bringing web2 gamers and sports fanatics to their metaverse and creating long-term, sustainable meta-strategies for sports rights holders.

Raj Rajkotia, CEO of LootMogul, said:

"We're delighted to be partnering with Six Sport, who share our vision on how we can transform sports fan experiences through blockchain technologies. Their expertise, connections, and deep understanding of the sports business landscape not only in Europe but also in major developed nations, will prove invaluable as we accelerate our growth plans for the sports metaverse".

Sean McAuliffe, Director of Six Sport said:

"We are looking forward to working with the team at LootMogul on this incredibly exciting project. LootMogul's proposition is unique in sport and presents a real opportunity for athletes and rights holders to further engage with fans, developing a clear strategy and tangible return for what web3 and the metaverse can offer".

eBay Wants NFTs To Connect Fans With Sports Stars ⭐

Notable Live, a digital platform that connects talent, influencers, and content creators with their fans, has partnered with eBay to leverage NFTs for fan experiences.

The partnership will combine eBay’s collectible marketplace with an immersive experience facilitated by Notable Live, and provide sports fans with a platform to connect with players.

The two businesses are currently executing a multi-year contract where Notable Live will be bringing limited edition NFTs and player merchandise to eBay.

EBay’s venture capital arm, eBay Ventures, previously led Notable Live’s Series A round, so the two companies had a prior relationship.

The online marketplace’s latest partnership with Notable Live marks its next step in the digital collectible space.

Mike Antonucci, co-founder, and CEO of Notable Live said:

“Our partnerships [focus] on delivering transformational solutions that provide fans true access. These solutions are built upon authentic offerings that attach memories to memorabilia and experiences directly from the source themselves."

The tech startup was launched by Antonucci and NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith in 2018 and initially started as a mobile app that gave fans access to memorable experiences with players.

eBay, on the other hand, has been gradually making moves in the NFT space.

It acquired UK-based NFT marketplace KnownOrigin for an undisclosed amount in June last year and launched the NFT collection “Genesis” despite the declining market.

They also partnered with OneOf, an NFT platform built specifically for the music vertical, back in May of 2022.

Unlike NFTs sold on crypto-native marketplaces like OpenSea, eBay’s NFT sales aren’t recorded on-chain.

NFT purchases on the platform require fiat currencies — through PayPal or credit card — and the digital asset is delivered to the buyer through a redemption link once the purchase is made.

Why does this matter?

Although the NFT market has been rocky the past few months - brands are clearly still optimistic about embedding them within their offering.

I mentioned in a previous newsletter that NFTs as a standalone product are difficult to sell, but when you tie them to things such as collectibles and immersive experiences, they can be a game changer.

Especially when you think about the people who buy, trade, and sell physical cards, sneakers, and other forms of memorabilia on eBay.

That seems to be the play for eBay and other consumer-facing brands.

Quick Hits 🎯

1️⃣ Web3 and the Metaverse: The Future of Sports Entertainment. The lines between virtual and reality will blur as the Metaverse becomes the go-to destination for sports fans around the globe.

2️⃣ Sports NFTs have captured the attention of the entire world as a way to bring sports memorabilia to life in a digital format. But what are they, and how can you get involved?

3️⃣ 20 sports tech ideas to invest in now – check out SportsPro Class of 2023.

4️⃣ Star power? Growing list of celeb endorsers showing up in crypto/NFT lawsuits. Tom Brady, Post Malone, Madonna, and other A-list stars named in lawsuits from disgruntled crypto investors.

Founder Feature Of The Week 📰

Historically, women’s basketball has been massively underfunded and underresourced.

But this woman is leveraging the power of web3 to bring attention to this issue and is building a community to help solve it.

We sat down with Leslie Motta, co-founder of the popular NFT project WOB, to discuss how she and her daughter went about starting the project, pushing women’s sports further, and advice for anyone who’s trying to get web3 or NFT project off the ground.

Thanks for reading today.

Btw - let me know if you'll be in Phoenix for Super Bowl or Salt Lake City for NBA All-Star. I'd love to connect.

Talk soon,

Malcolm

This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not financial or business advice in any capacity. The information shared is my thoughts & opinions and does not represent the opinions of any other person, business, entity, or sponsor.

The contents of this newsletter also should not be used in any public or private domain without the author's express permission. The contents of this newsletter should not be used for any commercial activity, for example, research report, consultancy activity, or paywalled article, without the author's express permission.