Are Your Baseball Cards on the Blockchain?

they betting so big on sports? Do collectibles even need to be on a ball chain? Will baseball players benefit from that Major League deal? On this episode, we'll talk to Bloomberg Report, to Hannah Miller, and to so Rare ceo Nicola Julia about why n f T S and sports play well here during Schomberg on Oh my God, kind of always a pleasure to have you on the pod.

Thank you so much for having me today. We're going to talk about baseball, which I don't know very much about, and collectibles which I know some more about, an n f T S, which I think you know. We're in good shape as it relates to non fungible tokens. But for the benefit of our audiences, tell us a little bit about your reporting on this company. So and what they're doing with digital collectibles. Yeah, they're an interesting company to watch. Yes, So they've really taken um the n

f T world by storm. When it comes to soccer n f P s uh, they're super popular in Europe their French startup, and what they do is is they combine fantasy gaming with n f T s, so real life soccer players are represented by these n f T s. People can build a soccer team with them and then compete with other people based on the real life performance of these players. So now they're taking this to the US with baseball and have teamed up with MLB to Major League Yes, to create a Baseball n f T

fantasy game. That's a lot of things, So I want to I want to break this down slightly. In theory, I could buy an n f T of Christiano Ronaldo or Messy or you know, sort of someone else, add them to my fantasy football league, my fantasy soccer league, and then compete against other people. So it's like kind of like Pokemon or Magic. The gathering where the better cards and players I have, you know, the more likely

it is I'm gonna win. Yeah, that's exactly it. And you know we've seen this edition of fantasy gaming and sports before, like I mean, fantasy baseball is a big thing in the US. But the whole mission here is to create these n f t s that people can feel like they actually own, you know, this digital asset. They can win money playing this game. Um. There's also free to play version um, and they can collect their favorite players actually you know, make a profit off of it. Yes, so,

which which is always what it comes back to. But if it sounds like these things exist outside of a blockchain concept, like why then do these needs to be n f t s, Like what is sovs? Value proposition here? Yeah, that's a really good question. I think we're still asking that question about n f t s in general. The n f t s here with the with these fantasy gaming the game wants to give the people who play

it the idea that they own these digital assets. They're on the blockchain, they won't be able to you know, get it taken away from them. They can actually sell them on other marketplaces and really just you know, interact with them in interesting ways. But I think that's a that's a good question, is like why do we need boxing here? What's the appeal of using n f T s as digital collectibles? And I think a lot of n f T companies, especially during this bear market, are

going to have to contend with that even more. What I'm trying to get a better sense of is the economics. Do these cards benefit players in any way? Do they benefit the league's you know, how does the licensing of a Christiano Ronaldo work? Yeah, it's pretty interesting. So they do work with specific soccer leagues to you know, get licensing deals, get them on board. I know some players have like teamed up to do you know, fan tokens and things like that with other platforms to get a

cut the new MLB offering. I asked about that, and I think there's still sort of figuring out the role that players are gonna play in this. I know that they're going to use baseball players to promote the n f T s. You know, different franchises will have different marketing strategies for promoting the games. And they actually worked very closely with the players union within Major League Baseball to get them on board and figure those things out.

So hopefully more details will come out about that soon. Now. In your story, you mentioned that the MLB Major League Baseball as an institution, was initially kind of skeptical of all things crypto. What made them change their minds? Yeah, so I did ask about that, and actually the chief revenue officer who I spoke to, he has had been

interested in crypto for a long time. He had had bought and sold n f T s, had lost a lot of money on n f T s, you know, so he had his own personal tragedies and triumphs with it, and I think he was really a driving force and building this partnership. But yeah, I mean they made he made clear that there was skeptic is m. You know, there is still this association with scams and you know, people losing fortunes and you know, just sort of bad press.

He said, though, that really just the broadening interest in sports n f T S. I mean, we've seen huge success with Dapper Labs and and being cop shot that, you know, and just the growing popularity of crypto and n FPS at that time. We're really sort of what spurred MLB to to jump on board with us. You mentioned NBA Top Shots, you know, kind of one of the original exemplars of bringing collectibles and fandoms to the blockchain.

They have really struggled in two Like you know, sales of their digital collectibles is significantly down relative to the same period a year ago. Yeah, and I definitely talked about that UM with a lot of people in the NFP industry because really they were there were such a leader UM when they first came out. But I think, what so so, where is trying to do differently here is add a gaming element to it. So NBA Top Shot doesn't have that. It's you know, it's a lot

of like clips, you know, it's more about it. It's I think a little bit more similar to just regular trading cards, whereas so Rare has this gamified aspect to UM. And I think that's what they think set so Rare apart from NBA Top Shot is that this is a different kind of thing. It is a true game, it's in the spirit of sports. It does connect to fantasy baseball. So I think that's why they're hoping that they're going to have a better fortune than and be a top Shot.

Here's the fun part about for to play games though, if you if you play video games to those like they're free to play until they get really annoying because you can't win because everybody who is paying for stuff is better than you. And it does sound like there's an element of that with this, where if you don't have good cards, or you're sort of not upgrading your

play or is, you're going to be at a disadvantage. Yeah, I know, and I think that's already something that sort of happens with the the soccer version of this, So it'll be interesting to see if that's sort of the case of the MLB game, which is coming out after the All Star Game this summer. In terms of the overall appetite among consumers for collectibles, I mean fandoms collecting

trading cards of every stripe. These have held up and they remember there were certain points at sort of the beginning in the middle of the pandemic when targets and other retailers were putting limits on the number of cards you could buy because there was such a rush to sort of get back into this particular form of escapism. Frankly, do you think that the digital versions of these activities will have similar longevity? Yeah? No, I I think that

remains to be seen. I mean, n f T cells are down overall, they're getting hit during this crypto winter as well. I think there's always going to be that technology barrier that people aren't gonna wanna cross over, and that barrier is especially high in crypto in n f T s, I think. So we're just trying to make this, you know, an easier user experience, but I think it's going to be hard to overcome just skepticism in general

about crypto UM. And you know, they're launching at a tough time too, because this winter is expected to last UM for for a bit. So it's going to be interesting to see if, you know, they make any changes to their strategy or you know, or just how they're going to promote this in general, while there is so much anxiety and fear within the industry currently, Yeah, it's looking like a deep chill for sure. How to thank

you so much. I still don't understand a ton about baseball, but I do understand more about these n f T s. So thank you for very much for joining us, Thank you for having me. Thank you Hannah. You can find more of Hannah's reporting on the Bloomberg Terminal on Bloomberg dot com and follow her on Twitter at h G. Millaine. We'll be right back with the CEO at so Rare, Nicola Julia, to dive deeper into crypto fantasy sports and

their partnership with Major League Baseball. Earlier this year, Major League Baseball partnered with so Rare to launch an n f T game. We're joined now by so Rare CEO and co founder Nicola Julia, who's going to talk a little bit more about what this means for fans of the sport. Nicola, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much for having me so tell me more about this idea of bringing collectibles, sport words, and fantasy sports in particular into the world of crypto on

the blockchain. So I've been a massive spons fan, you know, like for as long as I can remember, and I have sponse because they can unite people, they create hope, they inspire people, they bring people together, and they do this. They do this across the globe, and so I think that's our mission, like United sponsor fans across the club,

but we all do it. We are doing it in a way that is different from what the sponsor and Tottenment company have been doing in the past, where they were trying to you know, like grab your attention to get you locked in a cross the equest system and well when you are you are like doing their items like you are not really owning them. You could not like we sell them, move them and so on. So we are doing it in a way that is different. So we have this fantasy game where you can play

with officially lessens and f t s uh. And that's that's bringing like a totally different dynamic and connection between the company, the finds, the leagues and the kids. Why baseball, Why this league? And are there any elements of this deal that are different from what you were doing previously in your work in football or soccer. Yeah. So yeah,

we started, we've so gone, which is uh. Yeah, the biggest parts in the world in terms of for audience, and we have no like you know, like to two hundred and seventy clubs that were annuing with and we have two million news ons with the sport and uh, and then we were thinking about the next port and baseball was making a lot of sense for many reasons. I think the fans. One is like that's that's why collectibles came from a culical collectibles, which is a big

pillan for what products. The idea of of a baseball card and collecting a baseball card is the original exactly, exactly exactly, and same for fantasy sports, like our two parents collecting and playing fantasist ports were born with the sports. So it was making a lot of sends for us to start here in terms of fewer sports. We obviously wanted to grow audience in the US, and the MLB and MLBB were very excited about growing intelligence in Europe,

so it was a perfect fit. Do you have you know when you talk about growing your audience in the US, but certainly in other places, do you have any other leagues that you're hoping to work with, you know, the w n B, a NHL, Yeah, definitely, So jury speaking, we want to partner with all the best leagues and toup leaks in the world perform and sports and women sports.

Regarding men sports, we announced like that we're gonna launch two of the freemagents U S leagues disitions, so MLB is fast and then we're gonna we're gonna have a second one that is and that is comming this young and we're also going to launch women's sports in the

common ones. So we have nothing yet to announce, but this is something that we're already working on internally to make sure that we can you know, who know the sports and you know, making it prominent in the products and a far like a truly world class experience for funs that were to engage you know, women's sports on that when you announced earlier this year that Serena Williams perhaps the best tennis player of all time, then man or woman was joining as an advisor to your board.

In that statement, you know, it talks a lot about how women's sports is an area of interest and priority both for Serena Williams but also for the company. Why do you see this as a as an area to kind of play in as it relates to you know, the goals that you have for the organization. We just need to hunt on half of the world. So it's it's good to have you know, men's sports, but that we need we need to do more than this, uh, and so we we are committed to do this and

are committed to growdest point. I think that's not having again like a workless entertlement experience where funs can engage through the sports, gonna have growdest ports. We don't think you know, company like a Tattenment. Companies have done enough for this. So we we are committed to to do this and obviously in the the business will believe as a huge opportunity as well. Uh and so and so yeah,

we're very very excited to do this. And Serena is just a perfect fit to help us develop this, and not not only because she knows this one, but also because she you know, she knows technology and she has been involved in a lot of you know, fat growing startups, as a couple of films. So um so so yeah, it's it's an amazing partnership and she's she's helping helping us in many many fronts. Have you played tennis with

Serena Williams. I would love to not yet she you know, yesterday like she she was back on the court, which I'm very very happy at Wimbledon. Uh and and uh and and and I mean she's remarkable and like to do not have a curage to go back again. We we love this and we love this courage, well, we love this energy, this this dedication and the tennis play on and and so I would love to do this

at some point. Speaking of players, you know, at the end of June you announced that Kilean and Bopy is going to be joining or at least investing in in so are as as a as a partner, as an ambassador. What were those conversations like. And as you see more and more of these kinds of athletes engaging, as you say, not just in things about revenue, but in things in crypto specifically, Yeah, I mean for for for children in particular, it was it was for us an amazing fit because

he's a global icon. Uh, he's a global brand and we want and we are building a global product, like we are selling one hundred and eighty four countries right now. Um and uh. And so he wants to also to show that, you know, the best of the best and be built out of France, which is something that we are committing to do and to show so uh and and on top of being amazing on the beach, like he's got amazing values and commitments of the outside of the beach. Uh. And so you know, for us, it's

it's it's way more than than crypto or energies. It's what we can what can we do to give back with him? So we we have like a world UH commitment and most him around this. What can we do obviously to grow the audience of our products with him as an ambassador, and what can we do to get his feedback and his help to improve our product? So it's it's it's big. He's becoming an important investor in

the company, associal impact. Our team play on with us UH and obviously like our exclusive investor, Nicola, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much, Thanks so much for having me. Thank you, Nicola. You can find so are on Twitter at so Rare that s O R A R. On the next episode of Bloomberg Crypto. It feels like every country in the world is figuring out how they want to regulate crypto or

if they'll even allow it to exist at all. India is one of the fastest growing markets for crypto trading, something which it's government isn't too keen. On Bloomberg Reporters, that authors club will join me to discuss India's complicated history of crypto regulation. Why they're turning to taxes to curb speculation on the asset class and the potential lessons for other countries from the India experience. I'm Stacy Marie Ishmael and this is Bloomberg Crypto, a daily podcast from

Bloomberg and I Heart Radio. For more shows from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Email your questions, comments or suggestions for the show to Crypto at Bloomberg dot net and you'll find us on Twitter at Crypto. The supervising producer of this episode is Vicky very Galina. Associate producer is thy Butler. Des to wonder At is our engineer. Original music by Leo Sidron Take Me Out to the Ballgame is courtesy of Ethan Eu Banks No