Name: Warriors become first professional sports team to launch NFT collection
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Warriors become first professional sports team to launch NFT collection

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By | | Bay Area News GroupThe Golden State Warriors launched a non-fungible token (NFT) collection this week, becoming the first professional sports team to do so.“The digital collectibles excitement is palpable,” Warriors president Brandon Schneider said. “We see NFTs and digitization of our business as a mainstay to engage our fans around the world.”The NBA in collaboration with Dapper Labs has seen lucrative returns on its blockchain-based platform, Top Shot, which allows fans to buy, sell and trade numbered versions of officially licensed video highlights. According to ESPN, the league has made an estimated $500 million in sales from Top Shot.Schneider, who will officially take over as Warriors president and CEO when Rick Welts steps down after this season, and others have been monitoring the NFT landscape for the past few months as the organization considered options to increase revenue during this pandemic-stricken season.They decided to create digital championship rings to commemorate the team’s six titles, as well as digital ticket stubs from some of the team’s most iconic games, including the first-round upset over the Dallas Mavericks on May 3, 2007 from “We Believe” season; their victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on April 13, 2016 to set the NBA’s single-season record for wins (73) and the last regular-season game played at Oracle Arena (against the LA Clippers on April 7, 2019).As the organization seeks to recover revenue from the loss of ticket sales and concessions for nearly 40 home games between last year’s postponed season and this season due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Warriors on April 23 hosted fans at Chase Center for the first time in 409 days and will sell tickets to nine home games this season. It’s unclear when fans will be permitted to attend games at full capacity, but NFTs have provided the league an additional revenue stream in the near term to help make up for those losses.A portion of all proceeds will benefit the Warriors Community Foundation, which promotes educational equity in the Bay Area.“As an organization, we are constantly evaluating ways to be creative and innovate and launching this special NFT collection is the latest evolution for us in that space,” Schneider said. “Additionally, it is important to us that proceeds from this initiative will support the Warriors Community Foundation at a critical time in our community’s journey to rebuild educational practices during the pandemic.”The NFT auction went live Tuesday morning at and will end Saturday, May 1 at 8 p.m. PT. The bidder who purchases the first edition of each championship ring NFT will also receive a corresponding physical ring designed by Jason of Beverly Hills. There are separate 1-of-1 auctions for physical items and experiences, such as courtside tickets and signing a one-day contract with the team.Auctions will require a MetaMask Wallet and an OpenSea account to participate. The auction only accepts the cryptocurrency from Ethereum and will not accept credit cards.We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.Get Morning Report and other email newslettersFollow UsMost PopularClose

By | | Bay Area News GroupThe Golden State Warriors launched a non-fungible token (NFT) collection this week, becoming the first professional sports team to do so.“The digital collectibles excitement is palpable,” Warriors president Brandon Schneider said. “We see NFTs and digitization of our business as a mainstay to engage our fans around the world.”The NBA in collaboration with Dapper Labs has seen lucrative returns on its blockchain-based platform, Top Shot, which allows fans to buy, sell and trade numbered versions of officially licensed video highlights. According to ESPN, the league...

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Warriors become first professional sports team to launch NFT collection

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