Candy Digital tasked with building baseball league’s official NFT ecosystem.
- Backers of Candy Digital, whose majority owner is Fanatics, also include Mike Novogratz and Gary Vaynerchuk
- First MLB release to be a one-of-one NFT of Lou Gehrig’s famous ‘Luckiest Man’ speech in 1939
- Candy Digital expects to announce additional partners in coming weeks
Major League Baseball (MLB) has become the latest sports property to move into the realm of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) by partnering with a newly launched digital collectibles company backed by Fanatics executive chairman Michael Rubin.
Candy Digital’s other founders include Mike Novogratz, the founder and chief executive of crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital, as well as serial entrepreneur and investor Gary Vaynerchuk.
Having secured MLB as its first content partner, Candy Digital will be tasked with building the league’s official NFT ecosystem, where fans and collectors will have the ability to purchase, trade and share official licensed digital collectibles.
The first release, scheduled for 4th July weekend, will be a one-of-one NFT of Lou Gehrig’s famous ‘Luckiest Man’ speech he gave in 1939 after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Proceeds from the sale will be used to support ALS charities.
Following the Lou Gehrig release, Candy Digital said further assets will be rolled out for MLB fans to purchase.
“From trading cards to autographed balls, baseball fans have demonstrated their passion for the sport and its players through collectibles for decades,” said MLB commissioner Robert Manfred. “In working with Candy Digital to offer NFTs to MLB fans, we’re delivering an exciting new addition to the robust baseball collectible market.”
Candy Digital, whose majority owner will be Fanatics, which already has a partnership with MLB, said it is developing a broad range of digital collectibles, starting with sports content and expanding into areas such as art, entertainment and music.
The company said it has ‘ambitious plans’ for expansion in the digital asset marketplace and expects to announce additional partners in the coming weeks.
MLB joins a growing list of leagues expanding into the NFT space following the success of NBA Top Shot, which allows users to buy, sell and trade officially-licensed video highlights.
Speaking recently at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2021, Roham Gharegozlou, the chief executive of Top Shot maker Dapper Labs, said the platform now boasts one million users and has generated more than US$700 million in total sales in less than a year.