Hockey-loving HODLers, rejoice: the NHL is launching an NFT program. The league is partnering with Sweet to construct a market of digital collectibles together with every thing from iconic moments in hockey historical past to “3D interactive trophy rooms where users can display their collections.” The league made the announcement throughout NFT.NYC (and in addition throughout the Stanley Cup Finals) however plans to launch {the marketplace} earlier than subsequent season.
Sweet is a a lot smaller platform than OpenSea or SuperRare, but it surely’s among the many extra user-friendly of NFT marketplaces, permitting customers to purchase stuff with crypto or simply with a bank card. It already has a lot of sports content, too, together with collectibles from a variety of Formula 1 and NBA groups.
The solely stunning factor about this announcement is how lengthy it took the NHL to make it. Digital collectibles have been taking up the sports activities world for the final couple of years: the NBA has Top Shot; the NFL has All Day; the MLB and Topps maintain rolling out new digital cards; Sorare is partnering with seemingly each soccer membership in Europe; and there’s even UFC Strike and a handful of others.
The NHL’s type of late to the occasion right here and should have missed the enjoyable elements: Top Shot and different marketplaces are a long way down from the place they as soon as had been.
Still, sports activities proceed to be as smart a use case as any for NFTs — if there is such a factor, anyway. People have collected buying and selling playing cards for many years, and the marketplace for these playing cards has continued to growth over the previous few years. Officially licensed digital collectibles serve a lot of the identical functions, although it stays to be seen if “a video of a cool highlight” carries the identical long-term worth because the close to mint situation Mickey Mantle card that sold for $5.2 million final 12 months.
A couple of different leagues have hinted at broader ambitions for NFTs, like turning tickets into digital property or utilizing them to create communities amongst followers. (There was additionally that DAO that attempted to purchase an NBA crew, however that was a complete different factor.) The NHL’s announcement was comparatively simple and targeted on collectibles, although it did point out internet hosting “quests and challenges” to maintain followers engaged. Now the league simply has to hope that the crypto winter ends earlier than the subsequent hockey season begins.
