Cricket is a sport that has captured the hearts of billions across the globe. Subsequently, it is not a surprise that cricket memorabilia are in high demand – fans highly value items such as cricket balls, bats, caps, signed shirts and pullovers, and others. Last year, the ICC took cricket collectibles to another level as it partnered with Faze Technologies to roll out digital collectibles.
The NFT market has grown by leaps and bounds to clock nearly $25 billion in sales last year. While one does not usually put cricket and NFTs in the same context, there are exceptions, such as Fancraze launching cricket NFTs in partnership with the ICC.
NFTs are something that has caught the eyes of many in recent times. For those who do not know, NFTs are Non-Fungible tokens, a type of digital asset which uses blockchain to document the ownership of items such as images, videos, and other collectibles. Each token is unique. They can be used to represent real-world items like artworks, and since they are “tokenized,” it makes the process of buying, selling, and trading much easier.
Fancraze is a player which has combined cricket and NFTs to deliver experiences that are nothing short of enticing. Earlier this month, it joined forces with the ICC to roll out Crictos – described as “the exciting new official digital collectibles program of the ICC” – which will let users access and own official digital collectibles from ICC events, and provide fans across the globe an opportunity to immortalize several moments from the game that is no less than a religion in India.
Backed by high-profile names such as Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India, Coatue Management, and Dapper Labs, Fancraze, which claims to be building the cricket metaverse, opened its beta yesterday and announced that it will drop no less than three packs (Base Pack, Booster Pack, and Hotshots Pack) on January 27, costing $9 each. Later, it will launch its marketplace so that users can trade the NFTs.
Its launch roster currently contains 75 hand-picked moments from the two World Cups. In time, it will expand to include both games that will be played in the future and some of the “timeless classics” of cricket. Wouldn’t you want to own NFTs that capture MS Dhoni’s trophy-sealing six in the 2011 World Cup final, Yuvraj Singh’s 6 sixes off a Stuart Broad over, and other such incredible moments in history of ICC events?
If teaming up with the ICC is not enough, Fancraze has also partnered with high-profile cricketers such as Rohit Sharma, Jonty Rhodes, Muthiah Muralidaran, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Jasprit Bumrah, who will be offering exclusive moments. Now that Fancraze has access to ICC’s archive of video footage, it will make the IPs tradeable and liquid by “parsing them into small parts” of 50-60 second videos and images.
