It is a popular opinion that blockchain is going to be a major disruptor. Some even believe it will revolutionize the world in the same way the Internet did decades ago. Dozens of companies have announced working on blockchain-related projects to improve their operations. Including notable, IBM and Maersk, most of these companies are in the financial, logistics, and tech industries. However, all over the world, smaller startups are figuring out new and innovative ways to use blockchain technology. Entrepreneur Dan Nissanoff believes that blockchain can disrupt fantasy football. According to CNN Money, Nissanoff’s Crown League will be the first professional fantasy football league.
Here’s How Blockchain Can Disrupt Fantasy Football
Nissanoff plans to use blockchain technology’s properties, such as immovability of records and decentralization, to show that blockchain can disrupt fantasy football. In this way, Crown League expects to ensure a level of transparency superior to other fantasy football leagues.
Crown League will hold its first game in September 2019 and will follow the National Football League. It will include 12 franchises based on US-cities. Players will own parts of the franchises and the league. In turn, they will receive revenue sharing and governance rights. The league will issue tokens and will distribute them among teams based on their performance. Each team will have a general manager and other professional staff. As token holders, players will be able to vote and replace the management if they see fit. In addition, players will be able to sell their tokens. If a team does well, the owners of that team get more tokens. In this way, they can profit based on their team’s performance.
To launch Crown League, Nissanoff is conducting an ICO (Initial Coin Offering), planning to raise $100 million. The ICO market has doubled since last year, making it a popular route to take. However, whether or not blockchain can disrupt fantasy football still remains to be discovered.
Will It Succeed?
On the one hand, fantasy sports are highly popular in the US and have millions of players. However, they are also plagued by a lot of issues. To give you an idea, take a look at John Oliver’s take on Daily Fantasy Sports from a couple of years ago.
With this in mind, Crown League seems to offer a good solution. With more transparency, blockchain can disrupt fantasy football in the same way it can revolutionize voting, record keeping, etc.
However, the question is whether it’s necessary. Blockchain is a rather complex system that requires infrastructure and maintenance. Lately, we have seen lots of companies claiming to go into blockchain just to raise funds. Even the LA Dodgers are jumping on the crypto train. Just one example is Long Blockchain. Last year, an unprofitable beverage maker, Long Island Ice Tea, rebranded itself to become Long Blockchain. As a result, its stock skyrocketed. A lot of ICOs out there are still at the idea stage, over a half, in fact. In addition, most of the ICOs fail to generate any returns for their investors.
It’s highly likely that Crown League will find its share of investors due to the popularity of fantasy football. The idea that blockchain can disrupt fantasy football is interesting. Though, the question is whether it should.
