Dapper Labs Is Bringing Its NFTs to the NFL

UPDATE (Sept. 29, 14:47 UTC): Dapper Labs announced its NFL deal Wednesday morning.

“From the Hail Murray to the Minneapolis Miracle, magic happens in NFL stadiums. As a league that continually raises the bar, we are proud that the NFL and NFLPA have chosen Dapper Labs to deliver for NFL fans worldwide the Moments they’ve been waiting for,” CEO Roham Gharegozlou said in a press release. “We can’t wait to give the more than 300 million NFL fans the opportunity to own the game that matters to them and engage with the sport in a whole new way.”

Dapper Labs, a creator of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the Flow blockchain, has reached a deal with the NFL to create an NBA Top Shot-style marketplace for digital football collectibles, according to a report by Sports Business Journal.

Sources told the publication that the deal makes Dapper Labs the NFL Players Association’s second-largest source of digital licensing revenue behind EA Sports’ “Madden” video game franchise.

Just like its basketball counterpart, the NFT marketplace will run on the Flow blockchain and is expected to be released during the current NFL regular season, which wraps on Jan. 9.

Video content will be the central aspect of Dapper’s new project, just as it has been for the company’s prized basketball product, which has traded $780 million worth of collectibles so far in 2021.

Dapper Labs closed a $250 million funding round on Sept. 22 that valued the company at $7.6 billion. It comes shortly after Sorare, soccer’s leading NFT shop, added $680 million to its war chest in a funding round that valued the company at $4.3 billion.