?? Making Super Bowl History...Plus: The Most Successful PSL Franchise Enters The Metaverse & Giannis NFT Breaks Record

Welcome to The Hype Report where we break down the latest news, stories & happenings around sports & web3.

Here's What You Need To Know This Week ?? 

• NFL Reveals First Super Bowl 'Metaverse' Concert in Roblox
• Islamabad United Enters Metaverse
• Giannis Antetokounmpo NFT Sells For Record-Breaking $187K On Sorare
• Quick Hits & Founder Feature Of The Week

Let's Dive Into It ??

NFL Reveals First Super Bowl 'Metaverse' Concert in Roblox ??

Unlike last year, crypto commercials won't be making a big appearance during the game today.

But the metaverse has apparently made it to the big stage. 

The NFL is teaming up with Roblox to launch the first Super Bowl metaverse concert.

Here's the scoop:

• The virtual concert, which originally premiered on February 10th, features musical artist Saweetie, and will air every hour until the Super Bowl starts
• The concert takes place within Rhythm City, Warner Music Group’s virtual experience in Roblox metaverse

The concert is also paired with a collection of digital items that are sold on the Roblox marketplace.

The Saweetie Super Bowl Concert was developed in partnership with metaverse game developer Gamefam, and is launching along with Super NFL Tycoon, another metaverse experience with Roblox.

The Super NFL Tycoon metaverse experience allows users to pretend they’re NFL team owners, where they can draft a team and build a stadium.

Both experiences are also sponsored by Intuit.

Intuit is trying to teach younger users “important financial concepts in a fun and engaging manner."

So, while users fantasize about owning an NFL team, they can also learn how to manage cash flow, payroll, taxes, and customer acquisition (because that’s supposed to be fun somehow).

They can also move between Super NFL Tycoon and Rhythm City through a designated portal.

Top PSL Franchise Islamabad United Enters Metaverse ??

The most successful PSL franchise is taking its talents to the metaverse. 

Islamabad United will be the first cricket team to enter the metaverse with a world-first built-to-scale virtual stadium.

The stadium called U-Meta Stadium will be built in Decentraland, running alongside a twin stadium that will be available on Android.

Fans will be able to:

• Participate in a series of interactive experiences and challenges
• Interact with their favorite players’ avatars
• Explore several areas within the stadium including the locker room, player’s lounge, and fan's conference room

The experience will also reward visitors for their explorations and for completing challenges with official Islamabad United digital kits, club memorabilia, and exciting digital assets and offers from sponsors.

Fun fact: Cricket is the second most-watched sport in the world.

Giannis Antetokounmpo NFT Sells For Record-Breaking $187K On Sorare ??

While Lebron is breaking records on the court, Giannis is breaking them off.

This past week a 1/1 NFT of Giannis Antetokounmpo sold for $187,000 worth of ETH on Sorare, an NFT-driven fantasy sports game.

It is by far the highest sale for the 4-year-old platform.

It tripled the USD sale price of the previous peak sale: an Anthony Davis NFT that sold for over $62,000 (nearly 49 ETH at the time) in December.

It’s also the largest-known sale of any Giannis Antetokounmpo NFT.

On NBA Top Shot, the largest sale for the Milwaukee Bucks star is $95,000 in a transaction from February 2021.

An autographed Giannis Antetokounmpo rookie card—with a piece of game-worn jersey embedded into the card—sold for over $1.8 million in September 2020.

It briefly held the record for the most expensive basketball trading card sale ever.

But that doesn't mean NFTs can't catch up.

Especially when you're able to tie them to physical assets. 

To date, NBA Top Shot has generated more than $1 billion to date in secondary market sales.

Their highest single NFT sale took place in April 2021, when a LeBron James collectible sold for nearly $388,000 in an off-chain auction house transaction.

Sorare has yielded over $545 million worth of trading volume to date, across all their NBA, MLB, and Soccer platforms per data from CryptoSlam.

The top sale on Sorare’s primary soccer platform was an NFT card for star player Erling Haaland, which sold for 265.1 ETH (almost $679,000) in January 2022.

Quick Hits ??

1?? Web3 Gaming 101: Understanding the Future of Gaming Different Types of Web3 Games

2?? Authena Unlocks Dormant Revenue for Sports Teams With NFTs, Metaverse Portability

3?? The NEAR Foundation and the NYU School of Professional Studies (NYU SPS) Preston Robert Tisch Institute for Global Sport announced a collaboration to launch a learning workshop focused on the intersection of web3 and blockchain technologies and the sports industry.

4?? Warner Bros Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) will launch an ‘industry first’ Web 3.0-based trivia quiz and fan loyalty program during weekly broadcasts of its ‘Inside the NBA’ magazine show.

5?? America's biggest sports event of the year, Super Bowl, will not feature any crypto ads - and FTX is (partly) to blame.

Founder Feature Of The Week ??

David Golberg is playing the long game.

The fantasy sports market was valued at $24 billion in 2021 and is estimated to reach an expected value of $78.5 billion by 2030.

With web3 technology, that value could be even bigger.

As the founder of PlaySwoops, a virtual strategy basketball game backed by blockchain, he’s positioning the platform to revolutionize the space by giving players true ownership over their assets.

In this brief interview with David, we dive into what makes PlaySwoops different from other web3 fantasy sports games, how to maintain optimism as a builder in the web3 space, and how he sees NFTs playing out long-term within sports.

Appreciate you reading today and happy Super Bowl Sunday. 

I'll check back in next week,

Malcolm