[PRESS RELEASE – London, United Kingdom, 21st December 2021]
Flare, the blockchain infrastructure pioneers bringing EVM compatible smart contracts to simple payment chains like XRP, Doge and others, has announced a new partnership with Fan Controlled Football (FCF) to power the league’s collectible NFTs & set the stage for a DAO voting platform which would create the first professional sports team controlled by a DAO on a blockchain.
FCF will mint and issue the league’s first-ever commemorative Season v1.0 NFTs (non-fungible tokens) on Flare. Each NFT will encapsulate a video clip of a key moment from FCF’s exciting Season v1.0, such as Johnny Manziel’s first snap in the league, Josh “Flash” Gordon’s game-winning hail mary catch in his first FCF game, or the fan-called, game winning walk-off touchdown in the FCF People’s Championship game. Once Season v2.0 commences, FCF will continue to capture key moments and offer them to fans via play-to-earn NFT drops that reward fans for participating in drafting the players and calling the plays in real-time.
In addition to NFTs, FCF and Flare are laying the groundwork for a future expansion team fully controlled by a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) to be built on Flare. Flare’s unique blockchain lego structure will help deliver the DAO format for fans to collaborate in a seamless, transparent fashion and build on the promise of greater community power.
A DAO-led expansion team follows FCF’s vision for innovation and would add to the FCF’s unique mix of teams, which includes the recently announced Ballerz Collective – two NFT-controlled expansion teams with ownership groups that include Steve Aoki, 888, Tiki and Ronde Barber, and the Knights of Degen NFT community.
As part of the partnership Flare will become a league sponsor, providing the new network with integrated branding during the FCF’s live, interactive games seen by millions of fans around the globe on Twitch.tv/FCF, NBCLX, Peacock, and DAZN.
Flare’s Turing-complete smart contracts and low carbon footprint allows fans to lead their team to glory, on the blockchain, without the environmental costs associated with traditional consensus solutions.
Flare isn’t the only example of FCF leveraging advanced technologies to enhance the fan experience. Prior to FCF’s first season in February 2021, the league announced an integration with IBM Watson and hinted at a Watson-led AI expansion team coming in a future season.
Hugo Philion, CEO and Co-Founder, Flare: ”After the phenomenal success of season 1, we are absolutely thrilled to formalize our partnership with the global sports disruptors Fan Controlled Football. Utilizing DAOs and NFTs built on Flare means the relationship football fans have craved for years but the existing commercial model of sport prevented is now possible. Excitingly, season 2 will be exploding from Twitch into the metaverse and beyond. Passionate fans of American Football come and own your team and make your calls happen in real life.”
“We are incredibly excited to work with Flare and its team to explore all the possibilities the Flare network opens for FCF,” said Sohrob Farudi, CEO and Co-Founder of Fan Controlled Football. “Building on Flare allows us to tap into communities and ecosystems like XRP, DOGE, and Litecoin that were previously closed to the world of NFTs and blockchain-based play-to-earn gaming.”
