NFT-Based Athlete Investment Platform FANtium Raises $2M Pre-Seed

Mercury, the digital fan engagement platform centered on collegiate athletics, has launched clemsontigers.io, a customized website that can present inside entry to Clemson sports activities groups together with digital collectibles.

As a part of the three-year partnership, clemsontigers.io will put up group updates, stage chat boards and host digital fan interactions with athletes—a lot of whom are anticipated to finally acquire NIL offers with the corporate. Customers can develop into VIPs by signing up for a 2022-2023 Tigers Membership cross, which unlocks full on-line entry to contests and an opportunity to build up redeemable Tiger Factors. The primary 100 followers to register achieve their membership cross free.

“That is one thing actual that the college is endorsing —it is a actual Clemson platform,’’ Mercury’s CEO and co-founder Porter Grieve advised SportTechie on Friday. “As a result of on the finish of the day, followers wish to get nearer to the athletes.’’

Clemson and Mercury are additionally collaborating on NFTs that pertain to highschool’s athletic tradition. In a matter of weeks, clemsontigers.io will drop “Tombstone’’ digital collectibles reflective of the varsity’s customized of holding grave ceremonies for the ranked groups they’ve defeated on the highway through the years, together with the 2014 Orange Bowl win over Ohio State.

“At Clemson when the soccer group beats I imagine prime 25 opponent away from house, they primarily take that group and put them within the floor,’’ Grieve mentioned. “They usually have a graveyard on campus with all these tombstones towards Alabama and South Carolina [and 22 others]. It’s this extremely fascinating distinctive factor that solely Clemson does.

“So we’re doing a drop the place we’ve digitized and reimagined the tombstones as digital collectibles, NFTs. And we’re doing an excellent restricted drop, solely 32 of them and the fortunate followers who’re there early and get one will get rewarded with wonderful experiences 12 months after 12 months. So this 12 months, they’re doing this superior one the place they get to go to campus and run down the hill and kick a subject objective and get a tour of the amenities, and we’ll additionally reward them with memorabilia.’’

Mercury, which debuted in 2021, has related model partnerships with Kansas (rockchalk.io), Kentucky (ukbluechips.io) and Central Florida (chargeon.xyz). Within the coming weeks, they may launch related platforms for Oklahoma and Villanova, all with an eye fixed on customization.

“At Kansas, we took the James Naismith Courtroom at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, and we chopped it into 100 items digitally and bought it in drops of 5,’’ Grieve says. “And every one bought out in underneath three minutes. Folks can say, ‘I’m considered one of 80-to 100 holders of this piece of court docket.’ And we’re excited to redo that for the soccer subject and at different college’s courts to have them compete to see has essentially the most useful court docket. Resembling at [Kentucky’s] Rupp Area.’’

As many as 85 student-athletes from the 4 affiliated faculties have already signed NIL with Mercury. Former Penn State All-American soccer participant Adam Breneman is Mercury’s VP of NIL and Media and shall be internet hosting long-form interviews with most of the faculties’ gamers, reminiscent of Kentucky quarterback Will Levis, Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels and UCF quarterback John Rhys Plumlee.

Grieve mentioned the corporate’s objective is to not solely emphasize NFTs, however to customise digital fan engagement for every campus group.

“Clemson is completely different from Kansas, which is completely different from Kentucky and UCF,’’ Grieve mentioned. “So every requires form of a tailor-made method.’’

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