Since the invention of baseball, the appetite for player memorabilia has grown from a hobby of the die-hard fan to a bonafide investment asset class for serious collectors. Over the last couple of years, the memorabilia business has been rapidly expanding into the metaverse with digital collectibles in the form of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Since 2019, the meteoric growth of the overall NFT market, which is a subset of the crypto ecosystem, soared from almost nothing to more than $44 billion in 2021.
Deloitte Global predicts that NFTs for sports media will generate more than $2 billion in transactions in 2022, about double the figure for 2021 and by the end of 2022 that 4–5 million sports fans globally will have purchased or been gifted an NFT sports collectible.
With that kind of momentum, it’s no wonder that professional sports organizations like the MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL are enthusiastically embracing NFTs as the next generation of collectibles.
Future Stars Series president and CEO Jeremy Booth is known for pushing the game of baseball and its amateur athletes into new territories through innovation. Recognizing the serendipitous timing of the NFT explosion coinciding with the NCAA rule change allowing college athletes and recruits to benefit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL), his team wasted no time creating a groundbreaking platform to provide an entry point for amateur players to build their brands and connect with fans through the creation of digital assets.
Future Stars Series Digital is committed to helping players raise funds to assist with their tuition in the form of college scholarships through the Future Stars Series Foundation by creating value with the digital branding of their likeness in several ways.
In collaboration with Unitos International USA that launched MANAGERNFT fantasy sport play to earn games in blockchain, Future Stars Series Digital has combined the most profitable NFT sectors of Art and Gaming to create a Fantasy League comprised of Future Stars Series players. Players will earn money when fans buy their NFT as collector’s memorabilia.
In addition to NFTs in the fantasy baseball space and premium collectible artwork, players can grow their popularity through Future Stars Series Digital daily podcasts, print media, and soft rankings, which will collectively identify the best players in each grad class or before the draft without a number assigned to them. Players will be selected with an eye on future impact rather than only present numbers.
Commenting on the launch, Booth, who is also the president and CEO of the new Digital platform, said, “The formation of Future Stars Series Digital has been been in the works for quite a while. The how, the why, the when, and the what have all been questions that needed to be answered over the last five years. We’re beyond excited for the value this can bring to the partner organizations, the foundation and its scholarship programs for post-high school students, and the players themselves.”
The reputation the Future Stars Series has built for providing the most comprehensive amateur baseball player identification and development experiences available will no doubt follow the organization into the digital realm.
According to insiders, at least 30 past and present Future Stars Series players have already signed on during the digital platform’s pre-launch, with former MLB execs and broadcast personnel, along with veteran sportswriters, slated to join the Future Stars Series Digital team for the podcasts, rankings, and print media as well as player brand growth and identification.
ABOUT FUTURE STARS SERIES:
FUTURE STARS SERIES boasts a faculty and staff that includes multiple Major League All-Stars and World Series veterans responsible for executing the New Balance Baseball Future Stars Series, an initiative between the two organizations to elevate the game of baseball by providing amateur players across all economic levels an opportunity to reach their full potential through the training, development, and guidance of former MLB players, scouts, and coaches.
For more information on the Future Stars Series, visit FutureStarsSeries.com.
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