PUNE, India – Market Decipher has published its latest report, “Sports NFT Market Size, Statistics, Growth Trend Analysis and Forecast Report, 2022 – 2032”. The research estimates the Sports NFT Market size at $2.6 billion in 2022 and forecasts to reach 41.6 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 36.3% during 2022 to 2032. Digitalization of trading cards and humongous demand for limited edition video NFTs are two major trends revolutionizing the industry, finally pushing the sports collectibles industry. Surprisingly, the developing countries are picking up pace at a higher level than in any other high-tech market would do. The sports NFT market revenue doubled in 2022 achieving 100% growth.

“NFTs allow fans to get rights of their favourite sports moment by acquiring NFTs of such video moments. Trading card, which is already a huge market share holder in sports memorabilia market shows a speedy shift from physical to digital. NFTs further creates a new revenue stream for athletes, leagues, and teams of various sports, with current demand highly concentrated to the U.S. Various blockchain companies are allowing teams and athletes to create their own sports NFT marketplace, thus easing the way to NFT industry.” – Chandradeep Singh (analyst at Market Decipher)

“Shift From Physical to Digital and The Impact of Sales Channel”

Physical collectables such as trading cards have smaller lifespan as they can be lost, destroyed. This has given a huge boost to NFT card market.

Cards: Trading cards have now picked up pace in the NFT sector. Sports enthusiasts would collect the NFTs as a hobby and others for business purpose to resell them for higher prices.

Accessories: Player’s accessories/memorabilia such as T-shirts, watches, shoes, caps, glasses, etc are widely popular in the industry. There is a huge demand for these unique collectibles in the real-time, users try to get in off-line auctions. Digitizing these accessories make them unique and constantly increase the market value.

Collectables: In sports the collectible such as trophies, autographs, awards, and other sports equipment are turned into unique digital assets. Tokenizing the sports collectibles into NFTs will extensively grow the NFT market with huge profits.

Video Clips: There are some moments that gain popularity in a sport, sports organizations/athletes are tokenizing the video clips, images into NFTs which are now earning them huge revenues.

The sales channel in sports memorabilia market has been significantly impacted due to NFT craze. NFTs can be sold digitally and therefore off-line auctions have lesser role to play. Also, new NFT marketplaces have evolved that allow teams or athletes to create their own NFT and put it on an auction or sale. Such marketplaces also allow resale of NFTs by investors and traders.

“Will it End the Role of Auction Houses?”

In 2022, limited edition video clips would lead the NFT industry in sports domain followed by player cards. The value of NFT depends on the popularity of the athlete, significance of the event, and associated content within the NFT. NFTs are believed to be sold over online platforms; however, it has been observed that an NFT limited to a single edition of a major event—say, a winning cricket strike, goal, home run, or dunk by a sports person, added commentary by associated sportsperson—are sold at auction. On the other hand, the same video but with no additional content and numerous (though limited number) available copies is sold and traded through specialized NFT platforms or online sports collectibles marketplace, example OpenSea.

“Demand Drivers: What is Boosting Sports NFT Industry”

The offer of limited IPR within sports NFTs has not dampened appetite, suggesting that demand may well be driven by the ability to demonstrate status: Scarcity drives inherent value in and of itself. Video games is one such domain which has witnessed huge spending on digital tokens by enthusiasts and fans. As number of NFTs to be created depends on the manufacturer, it allows them to either create a super high value limited single edition or multiple yet limited editions; thus, creating expected rarity. NFTs are only displayed on a screen, and therefore the marginal cost of “manufacturing” is close to zero.

Currently, major sports in demand for NFTs are NFL, Soccer/Football, Basketball, Baseball, Cricket, and Ice Hockey. Over time, however, all sports are likely to have some form of NFT offering. Interest in sports NFTs is likely to be spurred by activity in the wider NFT market, including that for digital art.

A major initial consideration will be whether NFT activities are best carried out at the league, team, or athlete level. The sports NFT industry is making huge economic inroads into sports industry’s overall growth and development in multiple ways.

“What competitors are up to in this revolutionizing business?”

The NBA projects such as Top Shot, NFL’s blockchain project and similar others have acquired huge acceptance among fans. Digital Sports Collectibles or the Sports NFT industry has been assisted by the collaboration and partnership of NFT and sports industry to grow and is also having positive impacts on the sports industry.

Some of the companies covered in this report are OOOOO Entertainment Commerce Limited, Funko, Inc., Hut 8 Mining Corp., Ebang International Holdings Inc., Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc., OpenSea, NBA Top Shot, Rarible, Aetsoft, Enjin, Accubits, Nifty Gateway, AirNFTs, Sorare, Dibbs, Crypto.com, Fanzone Sports Club, The Ballman Project, Blockchain Brawlers, and Mintable.

Key Competitive Strategies: September 2022:

  • FIFA Launches NFT Collection on Algorand (ALGO)
  • NFT Platform “Heir” to enter high school sports star NFT Sector
  • Officially Licensed NFT Platform OWNIC to Revolutionize Collectible Sports Cards with Dynamic NFTs
  • Major League Soccer partners with Sorare, to launch a blockchain based fantasy soccer game in 2022
  • Ticketmaster Chooses Dapper Labs’ Flow Blockchain for NFT Tickets
  • Former NFL Legend Michael Vick Co-founds Sports Tech Company FanField
  • NFL To Launch NFT Helmet Collection as Part of NFL Rivals Blockchain Game

Key Stats and Insights

  • Sports NFT market growing at 36.3% CAGR
  • North America leads the global market
  • Asia Pacific is the most potential region
  • Cricket NFT is led by APAC
  • NFL NFTS are led in U.S. but a small market elsewhere
  • Latin America majorly dominates with NFL and Football both
  • Trading cards evolves as leading revolutionizer
  • Digital memorabilia gaining acceptance
  • Video Moment NFTs the leading segment
  • Highly active industry in strategies by companies in 2022
  • Early movers to take advantage/highly potential market
  • Ambiguity in understanding leading to huge misunderstanding among companies
  • Market Research to play a major role in strategy building in 2022

Sports NFT Market Scope

The report includes detailed analysis of market data for every NFT type for each country and for each sports type. Estimates and forecasts are provided from 2021 to 2032. This is a highly active market and therefore we update this research every month.

  • Number of Report Pages: 226
  • Number of Data Tables: 82
  • Number of Charts: 74

Top Sports NFT Market Segments

Industry Breakdown by NFT Type

  • Video NFT
  • Image NFT
  • Audio NFT
  • Trading Card NFTs Market
  • Memorabilia NFTs
  • Collectable NFTs

Industry Breakdown by Seller Type

  • Offline Auctions
  • Online NFT Platforms
  • Specialized Sports NFT Websites

Industry Breakdown by Seller Type

  • All major countries covered (around 30)

Key Report Takeaways:

  • Market revenue from 2021 to 2032
  • Market data for each product/sales channel/league/country
  • Sports memorabilia market trends
  • Market competition and company analysis
  • Physical and digital collectibles analysis
  • In-depth analysis of 20 major countries with data
  • Key investment pockets in the industry
  • Start-up strategy for entry

Source: Market Decipher