As arguably the most popular sport in the country, the National Football League understandably has a long legacy of fans rooting for favored teams and underdogs throughout its history. Testament to football and the NFL’s fanbase power, many teams representing various states in the country have enjoyed long-time fame and fandom. This includes the Los Angeles Rams, with 1.6 million followers, and enjoying a memorable Super Bowl triumph at the SoFi Stadium in 2022.
Other NFL teams with influential fandoms include the New England Patriots — considered the “team of the social media age” after winning six Super Bowls with Tom Brady under center — and the Dallas Cowboys, five-time champions with over 4.6 million fans despite lacking the coveted Super Bowl glory since 1995.
Traditionally, these fanbases show their support by flocking to games, buying merchandise, and voicing their love and admiration on social media channels. However, another form of digital appreciation has become rapidly popular in recent years — cryptocurrency.
The emergence of crypto and its growing presence in sports has transformed how fans and viewers interact with their favorite teams. For NFL fans, the rise of cryptocurrency has created new avenues for more active participation and support of their favorite teams.
Crypto Ticketing
A few years ago, talks of blockchain and crypto ticketing for live sports dominated headlines. This refers to the use of decentralized networks to issue tickets. Event organizers deemed this a potentially helpful way of preventing scalping, where prices tend to soar on secondary markets, especially for highly in-demand tickets and significant events like the Super Bowl. Crypto ticketing, like most other crypto transactions, promises privacy and anonymity while ensuring security for NFL viewers and fans.
NFT ticketing has also become popular, where viewers are issued tickets as an NFT asset hosted on a blockchain. Like other crypto and NFT assets, this makes viewers identifiable through a unique wallet number where the NFT ticket is stored. This also eliminates the need for physical paper tickets and reduces the risk of fraud and scalping. To merge real life with the virtual, the NFL has experimented with giving away commemorative NFT ticket stubs to attendees of select live games, starting with the Buffalo Bills vs Los Angeles Rams game at the SoFi Stadium in 2022.
Crypto Betting
In 2022, Drake bet Bitcoin on Odell Beckham Jr. and the Rams, sharing three large tickets on his Instagram page. The rapper placed a $600,000 bet on Los Angeles, contributing to a record-breaking wagering experts predicted for Super Bowl LVI. Of course, it’s important to note that crypto betting essentially works similarly to its traditional counterpart. Some of the best crypto betting tips recommend maintaining a fixed budget and forming a clear strategy to avoid losing what you can’t afford. Also, note that crypto laws and regulations may impact your ability to wager or collect winnings depending on where you live.
Another subsequence of the rise of crypto betting is the expansion of gaming and gambling. Some NFL fans, for example, turn to esports betting to bet traditional money or crypto, especially during the NFL off-season. This involves bettors assessing their odds based on overall rankings of in-game teams and players, which are heavily based on their real-life counterparts.
NFT Gaming
Finally — in line with the rise of esports and gaming — another iteration of cryptocurrency in the NFL is the increase of NFT gaming. NFT gaming rapidly rose in popularity outside of the sport when gamers worldwide learned they could make a side income out of play-to-earn NFT games. In 2022, the NFL announced its first blockchain game in partnership with developers Mythical Games, called NFL Rivals. The game has an arcade-style, free-to-play football gameplay experience where gamers can buy and sell player NFTs to improve their ultimate teams.
Developer Mythical Games also launched Rarity League, a collection of officially licensed fan-inspired helmet NFTs for NFL teams. This consisted of 2,500 NFTs per team’s helmet drop, costing 0.14 ETH (Ethereum), which equaled about $180. As an incentive, owners of Rarity League NFTs could score early access to the private beta of NFL Rivals.
