Sports and Games in the world of Blockchain and NFTs
Tags: blockchain, nft
Published: 2022-07-29 13:56:00

Sports and games are something that is always in the spotlight, and there is 24/7 sensational talk on the news and on social media. For the past few months, one that has been trending along with this is the Non-Fungible Token or the NFTs. Previously, it was considered something of a craze for art lovers. But today, NFTs are making their way literally into everything. Especially making the headlines with sports and games. NFT sports marketplaces, gaming giants like Ubisoft, Gamestop, and Square Enix getting into NFTs are some news that was tending about games. At the same time, Sport NFT marketplaces are creating history by making billions of dollars through NFT trade. How do fans look at the intrusion of this new technology into their fandom? How are gamers taking up the advantages of NFTs, and how do game developers see NFTs taking over their industry? 

**Sports fans and NFTs**

It all started with the NFT marketplace NBA top shot. The basketball fans got to taste NFTs in their fandom for the first time. You might have heard fans camping up to purchase the official merchandise, get autographs of their favorite stars, and more fan engagement. When NFTs came, it gave the opportunity for the fans to own their favorite shots in the games. Be it a slam dunk of Michael Jordan or the winning shot of the Phoenix Suns, fans wanted to own the digital moment. 

NBA top shot, the **[NFT sports marketplace](https://www.jump.trade/)** gave an opportunity for the fans to own them. Fans had an opportunity to own the important and favorite moments of the game officially on the blockchain. The platform marked its total sales volume up to billions of dollars. Later many sports-based NFTs came out. NFL all day, UFC strike, and more. Sports like soccer, cricket, formula 1 racing, horse races, and more are coming one by one to make better fan engagement. The future of NFTs with games is something that emerged as the tech developed, which you will get to know as you read this blog.

**NFTs in the world of games**

After sports, NFTs slowly made their way into the gaming industry. It started with Cryptokitties but reached its zenith with Axie Infinity. With NFTs, the gaming community replaced the pay to play traditional games with play to earn NFT games. 

The idea of giving ownership to digital files reached the games and thus involved the concept of using NFTs for the in-game items. Through this, the gamers have the liberty to buy and sell their in-game items anytime they want in the NFT gaming marketplace. The gaming economy was already flourishing, with the market value at around 200 billion dollars in 2021. This is expected to grow to 340 billion dollars soon in the future.

With NFTs, this is expected to increase to a great extent. The play to earn model is inviting a lot of nft traders to the sector as well. Though there is a lot of controversy surrounding the inclusion of NFTs and blockchain in the gaming industry, NFTs are proved to be useful.

This is because the current pay to play model offers the gamers only an enhanced experience in the game. While NFTs allow them to own them on the blockchain, sell them any time they want and rent them, they propose a brand new gaming economy. This new economy is named Gaming-Finance or Game-Fi. In this web 3 model of gaming, whenever the gamer wins a game, he gets rewarded for it. In most games, these rewards are cryptocurrencies that can be exchanged for fiat money. 

**The future with NFTs**

NFTs have already made their way into almost every sector showing their nascent characters. Flight tickets, birth certificates, and even land records are now taking up the form of NFTs, so why can’t the games and sports? 

There are many main characteristics of the Non-Fungible Token that makes it inclusive in every sector. The first will be its ability to offer ownership of digital files on the blockchain. Secondly, 	NFTs are unique and can never be tampered with. They are one of their kind, which makes it difficult to forge the details. Thirdly, the blockchain network is unhackable, which makes the asset a hundred times more secure. 

NFTs are also known for giving royalties to the creators and offering non-dividable ownership. There is more to it with the advancement in this regard. The updated version of NFTs, including the Soul Bound Tokens or SBT and many more new updates on the existing primary NFTs, will make them more credible in the future.

**The bottom line**

Non Fungible Tokens are breaking the myth and controversies surrounding them in recent days. People who called it a bubble were proven wrong with a lot of updates and signs coming regarding the mass adoption of NFTs. With regards to sports and games, NFT sports marketplaces will be the go-to platforms for fans. Also, the buzz around Metaverse is getting livelier every day. Games in Metaverse will have NFTs as their heart, and the future that NFTs have for the Metaverse games will be a whole new world to talk about.