Super Bowl Ticket NFTs Offered as NFL Tests Digital Collectibles
Following a regular season debut, the NFL recently announced plans to expand its NFT ambitions during the playoffs, including the Super Bowl.
For the Feb. 13 title game in Los Angeles, the league will be offering all ticketed attendees a customized NFT, marked with their seat number, as leagues continue experimenting with digital collectibles.
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For now the items, managed with Ticketmaster, are merely that—collectors’ items. But club and league execs haven’t ruled out using NFTs as a basis to offer fans future access or experiences. Given the response to the NFT program so far, the league is now considering its NFT strategy for additional tentpole events.
“For us, this is all about learning and better understanding what NFTs and this technology could offer in the future,” NFL SVP, club business development Robert Gallo said in an interview. “We recognize that we’re not even scratching the surface yet.”
The program started in November, allowing fans who purchased a ticket for select games through SeatGeek, StubHub or Ticketmaster to claim a commemorative NFT after the fact. The league says it distributed 250,000 such items.
The NFL has also offered a limited number of NFTs directly on its platform. In the regular season, the league sold 125 for each of the 32 teams for $10 each, though some of each set were sent directly to teams to use in their own giveaways. Another 125 Wild Card versions were made for each team that played this weekend, and sold for $99, with plans to repeat a similar offering each week of the playoffs, including a post-Super Bowl drop. The league’s next release will come Wednesday.
Holders are able to relist their NFTs on the platform, but according to analytics available on the site, secondary market activity has been quieter than for other NFT projects. Still, multiple transactions have occurred for hundreds of dollars, and most of the directly offered NFTs have sold quickly. “That’s part of what we’re learning and trying to understand is: What is the market? What’s the secondary market?” Gallo said. “What type of people are buying these NFTs or are interested in these NFTs? Do they attend sporting events? Do they not?”
The NFL is also working with Dapper Labs to release All Day, a platform to buy and sell digital video collectibles à la NBA Top Shot. Over the weekend, that partnership sold digital commemorative 49ers coins, ranging from $9.49 to $949.
“That I think is sort of a broader fan engagement play of all fans everywhere, this one is really more for the clubs to engage their fans locally,” NFL club business development senior manager Sam Rubinroit said. “It’s definitely something clubs have been supportive of and something that I think they’re eager to do additional executions down the road.”
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