Web3 Weekly: 2024/10/08

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Servus and welcome back to a great new edition of this lovely newsletter!

We've an exciting week behind us. Today we're talking about ATP's new Web3 campaign, the Web3-angle of the US presidential election, a digital drivers license by BMW, Detroit accepting crypto payments and a money market fund on Ethereum by UBS.

Let's dive into this ??

?? ATP's Web3 journey continues

Tennis as a sport has been at the edge of innovation in many fields. That's also true for Web3. We've seen some interesting propositions from individual tournaments and the Grand Slams, athletes have been active to an extend and then there is the major governing body in tennis. So, what has the ATP been doing so far?

• Just after the ATP finals in 2022, the organisation released its first Web3 campaign. It was an onchain generative art project that was created with artist Martin Grasser and Art Blocks. The project was really successful and sold out.
• Then last year with or before the ATP finals they did another one. This time the proposition was designed to be less niche and also appeal to more "average tennis fans". The project was called POSTERS and was created in collaboration with artist Honor Titus and a digital art platform Artchild to enable personalization of those posters since fans could choose their own colors etc. Additionally, fans were able to not only get the onchain digital art piece but also a physical version of it.

Now a year later, once again around the ATP Finals, there's a new project. It's different this time. This year, ATP has teamed up with Trace to create Momentum. The Momentum collection will consist of 15 limited edition collectibles. They will only be available on the day of the match they represent and will be free to claim. In terms of the visual part the memorabilia will be based on live data of the according match.

Let's take a look on how their Web3 campaigns have "evolved" and what's the why behind this year's project.

LOVE, ATP's first Web3 project, was actually quite niche. It probably targeted two audiences:

• Web3 natives that like art and tennis
• Huge tennis fans that are into Web3 or are at least curious about new trends or stuff from the digital world

LOVE wasn't the project for the average tennis fan to get involved with Web3. But the project sold out quite quickly, generated direct revenue and probably resulted in some good PR. That's definitely not a bad place to start.

One year later, POSTERS did a step towards being targeted to a more mass audience. It was cheaper, it involved a concept tennis fans were familiar with and really should provide a point of entrance to the space for "normal" tennis fans. But the project wasn't as successful as it probably could have been.

But, we overcomplicated things. - Mark Epps, Head of Web3 @ATP Tour

The user journey wasn't the easiest out there and although credit card payments were possible the piece still cost $50. There were many aspects a fan had to be educated first and all that during their main event that captured fan's attention.

Finally, this year it seems that ATP may have created the first Web3 campaign that many "average" tennis fans will actually use. It's for free and the user journey is really easy. The concept and mission behind it is also really designed to bring value to fans.

???????????????? is all about recognizing tennis fans—the passion that so often goes unseen. It’s for those fans who aren’t always in the stands but who never miss a match, who tune in, support, and truly ???????? the sport. With Momentum, we’re giving fans a new way to show that love for the game. - Mark Epps, Head of Web3 @ATP Tour

So what's in it for the ATP? Tennis is one of the world's most popular sports. But what's particularly interesting is the way fans interact with their sport. The ATP Tour is a very global product. There are tournaments in Europe, America, Asia, Australia and Africa. The majority of tennis fans never or very rarely attend a match or a tournament in person. They interact with the sport, the tour and their favourite players by watching TV, liking, posting and following on social media and maybe even collecting memorabilia.

The problem that ATP is looking at with Momentum is that almost all of these interactions go unnoticed. Yes, there's some data collected when people interact on social media or watch TV, but there's nothing that the sport and the organisations can really use. A lot of it is hosted by intermediaries. There's very little data on the majority of fans. So a lot of potential is going untapped. By building a product like this and getting to know your fans a little bit better, there's a lot of value to be unlocked. While the fans feel more valued and perhaps get access to cool stuff, content and experiences, the ATP and the world of tennis can benefit by using the data to improve both B2C and B2B monetisation and making their core product more appealing.

???? Web3 and the US presidential election

Overall, the hottest topic of last week was obviously the presidential election in the USA. Crypto markets have been reacting quite positive after a quite clear election with little uncertainty. What's far more interesting imho is the role of Polymarket, a blockchain based prediction market, in this election. There's been a lot of discussion about Polymarket's "forecasts" and wether or to which extent they are biased. Now, in hindsight, it turns out that Polymarket was almost shockingly accurate. In comparison, almost all surveys have "failed". Plus, Polymarket got the election calls right 2 to 12 hours before the associated press.

It probably has been the first blockchain application outside of crypto currency that really scaled and now is known by a huge number of people.

Now after the election interest has dropped but it will be very interesting to see the role of such "open" markets develop from now on.

Last but not least we have to add that with a new congress and president there will probably be some changes made in regards to crypto and Web3. Various topics are under discussion, such as a stablecoin law, a new chair of the SEC, and overall more clarity and acceptance. It remains to be seen what will actually be realised.

?? BMW Digital Drivers License

Similar to last year BMW has been a partner of the ApeFest (yes bored apes and all that) in Lisbon. They've been a part of the festival with their BMW M Driving Experience. Suitable to the event there also was an onchain part in this experience. Participants were able to claim their personalised unique license which is "living" on the ApeChain. Link

?? Detroit to accept crypto for taxes and fee payments

Detroit will become the largest US city that accepts crypto payments. Residents of the city will be able to pay taxes and city fees with crypto via a reportedly secure platform that is being managed by PayPal. States like Colorado, Utah and Louisiana seemingly already accept crypto payments. Link

?? UBS tokenises money market fund on Ethereum

UBS follows in the footsteps of BlackRock and Franklin Templeton. On Friday, the Swiss bank's asset management unit announced that it has tokenised its first money market fund. It is called USD Money Market Investment Fund Token (uMINT). The money market fund will be launched on Ethereum and will only be available for accredited investors. Link