Written in partnership with Ascend
Blockchain and cryptocurrency are two of the biggest buzzwords of 2021. While Bitcoin is soaring to new heights and being adopted by big banks and institutional investors another blockchain is also taking off. Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs for short are the Bitcoin of the art and media world. Similar to Bitcoin they use blockchain technology to ensure they are unique and there is an unalterable record of who owns the NFTs.
Photo Credit: James Tillman
One of the hottest places for these unique media NFTs is in sports and especially basketball. This is what caught the eyes of billionaire mogul Mark Cuban and his partners Jason Falovitch (@jf) and Aaron Avruskin, along with the media company they founded together called Leverage Game Media which prompted them to create NFT (@NFT). Mark Cuban is an American entrepreneur, television personality, media proprietor, and investor who is best known for his roles as one of the sharks on the TV show “Shark Tank” and as the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks.
While Jason Falovitch is not as well-known as Mark Cuban in the United States, this Canadian-born sports media entrepreneur boasts an impressive career in the sports industry as well. His journey started by accident on a trip to Bulgaria where he was working with a sports charity to feed Syrian refugees on behalf of Muhammad Ali and CNN. Impressed by his abilities 5 x Heavyweight Champion Boxing legend Evander Holyfield asked Jason to manage his career. At the age of 27, he was negotiating public appearances, TV, and film deals on behalf of some of the biggest athletes on the planet.
In 2017, Jason launched PlayLine.com with his partners Aaron Avurskin, UFC champ Michael Bisping and former 2x NBA all-star Roy Hibbert with its Sports Lottery product, where fans could win multiple million-dollar prizes daily by betting on stats of their favorite players and favorite sports. With Jason’s background, it attracted tremendous attention from athletes, media partners, and investors. Quickly PlayLine became the largest sports lottery in the industry and the third-largest player in a multi-billion dollar space just behind DraftKings and FanDuel. PlayLine’s success caught the attention of Mark Cuban and they formed a joint venture to combine their media forces and launched Leverage Game Media, a firm focused on social media and social asset aggregation. You can see some of their projects on their Instagram account @leverage.
Today Leverage is jumping into NFT market especially for athletes where they have deep connections and understanding for the community. Superstars like Patrick Mahomes sold his NFT collection in an action that generated $3.7 million in sales. Of course, there are some people who see this as a passing fad like the beanie babies of 2021, but the reality of it is that these NFTs are just a 21st-century version of the collectibles and memorabilia people have been collecting for decades. Because each NFT is unique and really the only difference is that you can’t put them in the spokes of your bike wheel like many kids did with Mickey Mantle rookie cards when they were the first issue that is now worth millions.
What we know for sure is that movers and shakers in the sports industry like Mark Cuban and Jason Falovitch are taking NFTs seriously because they think some of them will become the sports collectibles of the future.
