Cricketers set to make millions in groundbreaking cyberspace NFT deal

NFI about NFTs? You’re about to hear a lot more about them with Australian cricket negotiating a mega deal that could be worth millions to the players.

You could soon own a digital piece of Pat Cummins. Picture: Getty Images

Star players like Pat Cummins, David Warner and Ellyse Perry are set to feature in a lucrative cyber deal that will see cricket take a multimillion-dollar plunge into the Non Fungible Token (NFT) market.

The cyberspace memorabilia agreement is shaping to be the most valuable deal after broadcast rights and should be announced some time in the next month, guaranteeing a large and previously untapped revenue stream.

The AFL is close to signing its own agreement, but is unlikely to enter the market until 2022, while the NBL is also in negotiation.

Catch all the ICC T20 World Cup action live & exclusive to Fox Cricket, available on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today.

Cricket and the players are looking at a multimillion-dollar payday that could overshadow revenue from corporate sponsorships and other licensing agreements. The cricket NFT deal is said to be worth more than any other in Australia.

NFTs are already turning over ridiculous amounts in the USA for what are essentially digital trading cards.

The NBA’s first entry into the market with a series of video highlights is said to have generated $500 million in transactions in the first three months.

💸 NOW FINAL: New Top Shot Record 💸

$387,600 is now the largest Top Shot sale. 🔥

Moment: #3/59 LeBron James Kobe tribute dunk, From The Top edition

The Moment was sold on @Heritage_Sport. Congrats to the buyer and seller! 🍾🎉 pic.twitter.com/3JD1kFaGfT

— MomentRanks (@MomentRanks) April 16, 2021

The NFT market is volatile but valued at around $2 billion and is a spin off of the controversial cryptocurrency market. One NFT of a LeBron James’ slam dunk is rumoured to have traded for $500,000 after selling for $200,000 on release, but other cards sell in starter packs for $12 a set.

Sport is playing catch up with the fine art world where a piece called Beeple by digital artist Mike Winkelman attracted headlines when it sold earlier this year to a collector for $69 million.

Individual Australian players have been offered seven-figure sums to independently licence their image for sale as NFTs through companies here and internationally, but cricket is looking at a collective approach as the footage used is owned by the sporting bodies.

The Australian Cricketers Association and Cricket Australia briefed the players in Dubai last week and their agents in a separate zoom meeting.

Nobody is willing to talk about the deal, which is being negotiated, but there is confidence cricket will be the first Australian sport in the marketplace.

You could soon own a digital piece of Pat Cummins. Picture: Getty Images

The AFL is further down the track in negotiations and understood to be also set to make an announcement soon.

For those of you who have NFI about NFTs, do not be alarmed.

Essentially, but not exclusively, this is the cyberspace version of those baseball cards which trade for so much money among collectors in the United States or those paintings by Picasso which make the rich richer — in this case, however, it is more Banksy than Pablo.

The painting or playing card exists only in cyberspace and, while it cannot be held, it is essentially the same in all other respects.

Value is driven by scarcity and demand but, unlike art or trading cards, items carry complete guarantee of their authenticity and uniqueness.

NFTs are a unique digital certificate secured with block chain technology which authenticates its provenance — fungibles are assets which can be replaced or exchanged (cash, gold, shares) for something of equal value, while non fungibles are unique and cannot be replaced.

The NBA’s Golden State Warriors released digital images of its championship rings. Australian players have been approached by companies to provide images of a special shirt, a bat or ball, audio commentary and the like to package up as part of six-face digital cubes.

The ecosystem keeps on growing! 🌊

🏏 Excited to see @0xFazeApp bring cricket NFTs to life #onFlow with their @ICC partnership!

👉 Sign up today: https://t.co/v5oaYvgfyzpic.twitter.com/geZ4funcdu

— Flow Blockchain (@flow_blockchain) November 3, 2021

The ICC, last week, announced an NFT agreement with Faze, a start-up founded by former chief operating officer of the IPL and former chief executive of Reliance Sports Sundar Raman with Wall Street broker Anshum Bhambri and entrepreneur Kusagra Kohli.

“Our mission is to build the metaverse for cricket,” Bhambri said.

“We are in a unique position to combine NFTs, gaming, financial utilities and money-can’t-buy experiences to create a platform for fans to collect, use, play and interact with cricket through NFT’s on Flow (the internet protocol).

“Every NFT purchase can be made directly within seconds via a mobile wallet, or a credit/debit card, without the need for a crypto wallet, to ensure that every transaction is as easy as possible.”

One person could, for instance, buy a unique package of the Damien Fleming run out against South Africa in the epic 1999 World Cup semi-final.

Highlights of Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Shane Warne and the like are obvious high-value items.

Ellyse Perry’s greatest moments could be part of the NFT deal. Picture: AFP

Pat Cummins, who sits on the board of the ACA and has a business degree, told The Australian he has done a lot of research on NFTs and says “there’s enormous opportunity there”.

“There’s huge interest around NFTs. We will do something. I haven’t committed to anything yet, there’s a few things in the pipeline and opportunities we will have a crack at down the track,” Cummins said.

“It brings a lot of opportunities away from the traditional ways cricketers engage with fans. It’s been good fun learning about what goes on in that space.

“The most obvious parallel to draw is sports memorabilia. You might have a playing card that is signed and you hold onto it and you get the clout and prestige of owning something that might be unique, which could also be worth a lot of money, so you could transfer that, sell it on to somebody.

“You can make an NFT out of anything, staying in the sports memorabilia example you could make a really high tech memorabilia piece, playing card, you can control how many there are, you might make one, or a hundred, or a thousand and a fan or investor can buy that directly.

“They can’t be copied there’s no fakes out there and they can onsell that or hang onto it for life and value it like a traditional card.”

A downside of the blockchain technology is its enormous carbon footprint – due to the electricity consumption to run complex ‘proof of work’ calculations – but Cummins has also explored that side of the industry.

“It is a concern,” he said.

“But there’s different blockchains, some have a super high footprint and there’s others who are actually carbon negative, they have a small footprint and the one they do they offset it.

“Not all blockchains are equal in that space.”