PGA NFT Autograph
The PGA Tour has announced a new partnership with the blockchain company Autograph. The multi-year deal will see the creation of an NFT platform that will be used to showcase authenticated memorabilia from golfers on the tour.
The PGA, golf’s most elite professional tour, is teaming up with U.S. football quarterback Tom Brady’s Autograph non-fungible token marketplace to create its own NFT space.
According to a Sportico report, the multi-year partnership will result in NFT content generated from the PGA’s video archive and player data, with all platform revenue reverting back to the players’ pockets. The new NFT platform is expected to debut somewhere in early 2023.
The golf tour is the latest major sporting league to sign a long-term NFT deal, though it’s the first to do so with Autograph. The National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), and Major League Baseball (MLB) all have long-term NFT marketplace deals with Flow blockchain creator Dapper Labs, while English Premier League in soccer is also continually expanding its reach into this new digital space.
Among the most notable athletes to have partnered with Autograph are Tiger Woods in golf, Simone Biles in gymnastics, Tony Hawk in skateboarding, Justin Herbert in football, and Naomi Osaka in tennis.
Autograph NFT
Autograph continues to operate a “closed market” NFT model, which is viewed as more corporate and centralized when compared to decentralized trading platforms like OpenSea and Magic Eden. Closed marketplaces restrict users from sending their collectibles to third-party wallets, unlike open marketplaces. Despite this, these relationships have resulted in significant payments for all parties involved, with closed marketplaces like Autograph often netting hundreds of thousands of dollars with each new collection release.
Tom Brady
Tom Brady is an an American Football legend. From 2001-2019 he played for the New England Patriots. He is one of only two players to win five Super Bowls, and he was the oldest quarterback to appear in and win a Super Bowl, at age 41. He is currently playing quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, although he has talked openly about retiring. Brady is one of the most bankable sports stars, with an estimated net worth of over $400 million. This is set to grow in the coming years, following his historic $375 million post-retirement deal with Fox sports.
As one of the most high-profile athletes in the world, Brady’s entry into the NFT space has helped to legitimize the technology and spur mainstream adoption. Thanks in part to his efforts, NFTs have become big business in 2021, with billions of dollars worth of collectibles being sold on a weekly basis.
The PGA Tour’s new NFT platform will be used to showcase authenticated memorabilia from golfers on the tour. This will include video highlights, player data, and other digital content that can be tokenized and sold as collectibles.
The partnership with Autograph is a major coup for the company, which has been working hard to secure high-profile partnerships in the world of sports and entertainment.
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