The term blockchain has penetrated multiple industries as it is no longer synonymous purely to the financial sector. The world geniuses found diverse means to apply the blockchain tech to various niches of human activity, from healthcare and education to energy-saving and space flights. Just for the record, business mogul and SpaceX ‘father’ Elon Musk admits that he also implements the cryptographic ledger to run his companies with multi-billion revenues.
Okay, it is easy-to-believe that multinational enterprises and tycoons like Elon Musk apply the blockchain solutions daily, but what about unrelated to the digital universe sectors?! What benefits could blockchain potentially have in the sports niche?
At first sight, it is hard to bond sport and the encoded data processor in one sentence. Sport is about athletes, fans, competitive spirit, and emotional thrill for all parties involved. How can blockchain relate to these if it’s all about crypto, e-commerce, peer-to-peer operations, and similar ‘smart’ words that come to our minds when talking about the digital ledger?! When diving deeper in the blockchain wildwood, skeptics will be astonished by the impressive prospects that this one-of-a-kind mankind’s creation may bring to the sports industry.
Blockchain’s weight in the sports niche
If speaking the simple language, blockchain stores the data blocks for their further peer-to-peer proceeding, using a unique algorithm of the codified info recording, processing, and storing. In short, users can not only apply this tech for BTC transactions; they can draw on blockchain to share all kinds of digitalized content. Just like we use social media to post photos and news, we can use blockchain to share encoded data pieces with anyone living in the most remote spots on the planet.
When addressing the sports niche, blockchain’s cryptographic algorithm can be beneficial for data storage and transmitting between peers without third party involvement. Let’s imagine that any tiniest fragment of information regarding global players, teams, winning histories, doping reports, events statistics, and everything that has ever occurred in the sports universe can be accessible in one database. Moreover, this smart databank can not only store billion-gig content but analyze it within milliseconds. The perspectives seem mind-blowing!
Coaches can use deep-analyzed data to train athletes. Executives can improve all behind-the-scenes business spheres, including human resources, logistics, management, customer relationships, and advertising. Smart contracts between players and clubs can take place without eternity-lasting negotiations. Sports enthusiasts also won’t stay on the sidelines, as blockchain opens large-scale prospects for casual fans to invest in prosperous clubs and organizations to earn a hard coin.
The integration of the blockchain solutions can be a trouble-solver considering hacker attacks due to the independent decentralized software for data tracking. Experts predict a colossal investment growth in the global sports sector following the blockchain boost on the world arena. In fact, this fast-flowing cryptographic platform is already reconceptualizing the sports industry. How exactly does the BC-tech affect global sports? We’ll enlighten the brightest changes in the next paragraph.
How blockchain is transforming sports
The BC integration can be fruitful for various aspects of the sports niche, including:
Smart deals
Sponsorship contracts and players’ transfers are an integral part of the big sport. Sponsors provide financial assistance to clubs and teams that, in their turn, promote their brands during local and international games and tourneys. It works this way – companies sign deals with the clubs’ big bosses on mutually agreed terms. A similar story occurs with the athletes’ patronage: potential sponsors negotiate with the club executives but not directly with players.
Blockchain can end the era of the sky-long negotiations. Using the BC channels, interested parties can build smart partnership deals with athletes directly without big bosses’ involvement. It is firsthand beneficial for middle-rank athletes and rookies who only start conquering the sport Olympus. When the parties’ conditions meet, everyone eventually wins. Players receive a powerful patronage and make successful careers in big sport; sponsors boost their brands and gain global recognition.
NB: The company SportyCo is among the frontrunners by holding smart deals via the decentralized venue. It is a brilliant example of how BC is helping patrons invest in young talents worldwide.
Teams’ improvement
Blockchain can store, transfer, and analyze billions of codified data pieces at lightning speed, as mentioned earlier. The BC network capability equals the summarized energy of 500+ most powerful computers operating simultaneously. Such an in-depth analysis of ever-existing data may have bombshell prospects for teams’ progress boosting. Even the brightest human minds require decades to analyze the same data memorabilia that the decentralized ledger may scan within milliseconds.
Using the BC-tech, coaches can track athlete performances throughout a certain period to detect the soft spots and help teams make progress. The unique software can analyze thousands of games ever played globally to identify a winning algorithm. The biometric databank can uncover any tiny misstep that even the most experienced coaches can skip. The success stories of teams (like the UK Lincoln City) whose management has already involved the peer-to-peer smart analyzer prove that blockchain is already reshaping the athletes training techniques.
Anti-doping solutions
The global sport knows numerous sad doping stories that ruined the promising careers of many talented athletes. And how many drug stories could remain in the shadow? A myriad of them! Big bosses spend millions to hide the doping cases involving their team members, knowing that the consequences will be catastrophic for all participants if their crimes come into light. Game results will be annulated; athletes will lose their jobs and perspectives; teams will say farewell to their reputation.
The digitalized data processor can upgrade drug testing as it keeps record of all ever-existing doping cases. Drug records that ever appear in the BC database can’t be removed from the cryptographic chronicle. Unlike humans, blockchain doesn’t take bribery and safeguards all evidence under data encryption. There is another way to use BC in the anti-drug campaign. The centralized register can ease the process of adjusting athletes’ healthcare by tracking the results of drug prescriptions to come up with an acceptable dosage. It will reduce doping risk and help managers notice alarming signs in athletes’ health at an early stage.
Farewell, illegal tickets resale!
Sports enthusiasts often get into scammers’ trap with ticket resale. It looks this way. Fans overpay draconian funds to smugglers to get the desired ticket. What choice do they have if the big game is around the corner and all the tickets sold out?! They can watch the game on TV at home or pay a pretty penny to greedy resellers. The second scenario is even more dramatic. Fans transfer money to illegal resellers and get no tickets afterward. Sadly, but such things are standard on the black market.
How can blockchain be helpful against illegal resellers? Simply! The ad-hoc network can build an independent, smart platform to track every ticket’s flow on its way from a buyer to a customer. Fans can effortlessly cross-check whether their tickets are valid and select a better price without overpaying to black-label dealers. Moreover, the BC-tech can limit the tickets sale to the same hands that will cut the oxygen supply to illegal retailers. No more annoying ticket buying routine for fans, and nothing can ruin their pre-game thrill!
Behind-the-scenes areas
The bottom-up data analyzer can be beneficial not only for athletes’ progress; it gives bountiful perks to the big sport's behind-the-scenes spheres. Specialists can apply cryptography in logistics to adjust delivery and transportation processes. The BC implementation may have value in the human resources niche. The smart data processor quickly detects humans’ strengths and weaknesses to help managers pick up employees mindfully and adjust the career-growth chain.
Blockchain value is hard to measure when it comes to the protection of the telecasting rights. It’s not a secret that companies often have to defend their licensing rights for televising major sporting events on their platforms. Surprisingly, but it appears somewhat problematic to define the broadcasting rights’ legal owners' (some judicial proceedings last for years). Decentralized solutions make the entire process more hassle-free. BC provides each network with a unique ID that helps identify the rights owner without eternity-long court proceedings.
Fans engaging
Sports events are nothing without human interaction. Fans and shouting tribunes may spice up any match and tourney. Smart brands will never diminish the significance of fans’ engagement, and blockchain helps them with it. More and more clubs tend to integrate BC solutions to boost fans’ interest in the events. They introduce token-rewarding programs to stimulate sports enthusiasts. For instance, fans may promote teams on their social media channels and receive remuneration from brands in the shape of tokens, which they can spend on tickets or memorable souvenirs from the athletes.
Some companies go further and apply the peer-to-peer software to let fans participate in the teams’ life. Using the decentralized paradigm, users can vote for MVPs, select team rosters, and even pick up spots for upcoming games in exchange for tokens. Fans’ motivation is the most powerful and efficient tool to raise people’s involvement in the sports niche. Why spend millions on expensive commercials and ad campaigns if now brands can interact with fans directly via the BC platform?! So simple, yet so smart!
Investments boost
Any industry sector requires the investment flow to grow and develop. The sports industry is not an exception. Analysts admit that sport keeps the position of the most profitable niche for investors globally. But if decades ago, only companies with six-figure revenues could invest in sports, things have drastically changed in recent years. We should say thanks to Mr. Blockchain for these transformations.
Now any wisher can become an investor due to the biometric channels. The brightest case is fantasy sport. The FS revenue counts millions annually, and this number keeps growing exponentially. The best part is that each of us can invest in FS using crypto. Ordinary people can shape their fantasy teams, arrange virtual players’ transfers, and compete with other teams’ owners in fantasy leagues. FS prospects seem incredible with the BC integration, and pundits admit it’s only a start.
Sports betting flexibility
Sports and thrill are synonymous as the first is inseparable from another. Sports wagering tops the rankings of people’s beloved pastimes. No wonder as nothing can beat that eureka moment and excitement when a team you bid on wins the game. Blockchain gives numerous benefits to sports bettors as it simplifies the interaction between betting companies and customers.
According to the WorldBookmakers, top-tier sportsbooks have already embodied crypto solutions on their online platforms. It gives several privileges for customers. First, they can make transactions flow without third-party interruption, meaning that their gambling activity will not appear in any bank statements. Speed is another advantage of the cryptographic operations. Customers can receive their winnings right away, not waiting for the banks’ approval. Finally, many online bookmakers reward users with special bonuses (coins, virtual gifts, cash) for depositing in crypto. Sports admirers worldwide have already evaluated the pros and simplicity of peer-to-peer innovations for wagering.
Blockchain benefits
Blockchain possesses several unbeaten strengths that make it the most speedily-popularized technology ever created by humanity. Among BC’s major benefits are the following:
- In-depth data analyses: BC creators made this one-of-a-kind cryptic tool able to process billions of numerical data pieces at flash speed. None other algorithm is competent to provide such deep data scanning so fast. Blockchain can read, scan, and analyze tons of information stored in digital blocks on the virtual network within nanoseconds.
- Security: Any data stored in the open web access is susceptible to hackers’ attacks (though providers assure us in the opposite). To prove a point, even the Pentagon, with its multi-level security system, several times was vulnerable to hackers’ assault. With blockchain, users shouldn’t be afraid of hackers. Any tiny data fragment kept in the BC universe is encrypted and protected by the integer codified keys, which frauds will never decode by any means.
- Flexibility: Blockchain ‘lives’ to make human lives better. With this smart data processor, people can share content on the virtual cloud and submit handy transactions as easy as never before. BC makes it possible to use crypto for traveling, shopping, and tuition. The number of global companies that deal with bitcoins is continually increasing. People may say farewell to tiresome bank transactions and old-schooled cash in the nearest future when every online and brick-and-mortar store will accept crypto.
Blockchain-friendly countries
Blockchain has always been a subject of multiple debates among global leaders. Some remained skeptical about the innovative creation's possible prospects and admitted that blockchain would ‘die’ any time soon. Others claimed that the BC-tech would destroy the global economy, and people should avoid this devil’s tool. However, the reality appeared not so scary. Nowadays, a growing share of countries applies cryptography in various industry sectors.
The trailblazers among BC-friendly countries are Malta, Gibraltar, and Switzerland. No need to remind that these regions are notorious for their high economy level, prosperous trading zone, and top-notch banking sector. Switzerland and Malta are motherlands of several successful BC companies that deal with crypto. It’s good when local authorities don’t put roadblocks to innovations and support promising startups that further help boost the country’s economic, scientific, and sports sectors. The Gartner team did profound research and concluded that blockchain-loyal companies could adjust the data quality standards by 50%, and it is not a limit!
Global leaders, who witnessed the brother-countries’ success from the sidelines, obviously changed their skeptical attitude toward blockchain. Moreover, such world giants as America and Japan work on creating their inner cryptocurrencies. Interesting fact! Most people mistakenly consider Bitcoin to be a pioneering crypto. In reality, BTC was not the first to step on the crypto market. It has an ‘older brother’ Digicash, launched two decades earlier than BTC. However, nobody will deny that Bitcoin beats Digicash in its popularity worldwide.
Summing up
The skepticism phase considering the blockchain prospects is finally over. Nowadays, even the avid nonbelievers acknowledge the cryptographic tech benefits in different spheres of mankind’s wellbeing. The sports industry reshaping is a vivid example. Blockchain helps reconceptualize the old-fashioned model of gameplay running, and all parties get their bonuses. Athletes receive mind-blowing opportunities for career-building via the smart peer-to-peer deals. Club bosses and management staff can apply the BC solutions to raise the backstage zones, including human resources, finance, advertising, and even anti-doping campaigns.
Sports enthusiasts also don’t rest on the bench. They can benefit from the crypto integration either by investing in sports or by receiving generous perks that clubs apply for fans’ engagement. Even sports wagering has reached a new level due to the flexibility, impressive speed, and top-tier security of the crypto transactions. Of course, the blockchain boost is not a panacea that can magically improve all sports industry segments. Still, the changes that we are witnessing now prove that the sports universe has blossomed with the BC introduction. The more exciting is to see what’s next!