## 5 Discussion
### Practical Implication of Blockchain in Sport  
Blockchain technology has numerous practical applications in sports, including ticketing, fan engagement, sponsorship, athlete management, anti-doping, merchandising, betting, and health tracking. It can combat ticket fraud and scaling by providing a secure and transparent way to issue, transfer, and verify tickets using non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Blockchain can also enable new forms of fan engagement through digital collectibles, fan tokens, and reward systems, increasing fan loyalty and creating new revenue streams. It can also provide the transparent and efficient tracking of sponsorship deals and advertising metrics, ensuring both parties receive verifiable data on campaign performance. Blockchain platforms like FutbolCoin facilitate contracts and transactions between sports clubs, players, and agents using smart contracts. It can also improve transparency and trust in anti-doping processes by securely recording test results and ensuring immutability. It can also provide a decentralized and tamper-proof platform for placing and settling bets. This research demonstrates that, overall, the implementation of blockchain applications in sports yields substantial benefits reflected in the increased performance of the athletes. This performance is associated with an increased return on investment (ROI) positively associated with the sportive clubs and countries economy.  
Why Football Adopts Blockchain Faster Than Basketball?  
Football has larger, global audiences and as a consequence, has a higher demand for secure ticketing and fan engagement. UEFA and FIFA experimented with blockchain early, which enhanced the industry-wide adoption. Basketball focused more on NFT collectibles and analytics rather than direct blockchain governance (Table 6).  
Benchmarking Against Other Sectors: Blockchain adoption in sports is still in its early stages, but other industries have already achieved maturity in key blockchain applications. Comparing sports to finance, healthcare, and supply chains allows insights into best practices for overcoming adoption barriers. An industry comparison might be observed in Table 7.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Blockchain Application** & **Football (Soccer)** & **Basketball** & **Key Differences** \\ \hline Smart Tickets & UEFA used blockchain for EURO 2020 ticketing & Limited adoption & Football faces higher ticket fraud risks, necessitating blockchain solutions. \\ \hline Fan Engagement & Fan tokens (FC Barcelona and PSG) & NBA Top Shot (NFTs) & Football engages fans through ownership; basketball leverages collectibles \\ \hline Player Performance Data & Less adoption, mostly in elite clubs & NBA experimenting with blockchain-based tracking & NBA teams more focused on individual analytics \\ \hline Sponsorship Management & Crypto sponsorships (e.g., eToro and Crypto.com) & Smart contracts used for sponsor deals (e.g., FTX) & Basketball relies more on digital asset sponsorships \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 6: Comparative analysis football vs. basketball.  
The finance industry pioneered blockchain use through DeFi (Decentralized Finance), enabling secure cross-border transactions with smart contracts (e.g., Ripple and Ethereum). In sports blockchain-powered player contracts and salary payments can eliminate intermediaries in international transfers (Table 7). Healthcare blockchain secures Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), reducing fraud and unauthorized data access. In sports, blockchain can protect athlete health records from tampering, similar to its use in anti-doping programs (Table 7). Supply Chain: Walmart and IBM track food safety using blockchain, ensuring transparency in the supply chain. In sports blockchain can be used to track athlete sponsorship deals, ensuring contract transparency (Table 7).