In short
- Dapper Labs and Ultimate Fighting Championship will launch the UFC Strike NFT collector’s platform on January 23rd.
- Meanwhile, the NFL All Day platform is still ready to be launched publicly by the end of the current NFL season.
After finding success with NBA high shot and inking subsequent chords with the NFL e The League, Dapper Labs announced today that it will launch a NFT platform for the popular mixed martial arts organization Ultimate Fighting Championship later this week.
UFC Strike will debut on Sunday 23 January, right after Saturday’s UFC 270 pay-per-view live event. Like Top Shot, UFC Strike digital collectibles will be minted by Dapper Flow blockchain and will revolve around footage of previous events. However, unlike Top Shot, UFC Collectible Moments will feature the original audio to match the video clip.
Additionally, all packs, which feature a random selection of moments, will be sold for the same price, rather than at different tier levels (as with NBA Top Shot). The first pack will feature NFT moments from fighters such as Francis Ngannou, Amanda Nunes, Kamaru Usman, Rose Namajunas, Derrick Lewis, and Justin Gaethje.
Interestingly, Dapper’s deal with the UFC predates the launch of NBA Top Shot. The link was announced in February 2020, when the NFT market was still small and niche, well before it expanded to some $ 23 billion in trading volume in 2021, according to data from DappRadar.
Caty Tedman, head of partnerships at Dapper Labs, said decipher that Dapper wanted to launch NBA Top Shot first and learn from experience, including big scalability challenges early last year, before launching the UFC collectible product.
“We have come to the point where we feel ready for [launch],” she said. “We are very excited to offer UFC fans a once-in-a-lifetime experience and the utility that comes with this type of product. As the sector is growing and we are growing, we are finally ready to launch it ”.
Tedman said the UFC Strike platform will receive a big boost as part of this weekend’s pay-per-view event, with UFC President Dana White and fighters attending the event.
As the UFC schedule is largely based on pay-per-view fights that take place every few weeks or so, UFC Strike times its dips around those major events. The platform will initially focus on last year’s fights, but will ultimately also highlight the best moments from old UFC fights. The first meeting of the promotion dates back to 1993.
Despite the nearly two-year gap between the original announcement and this week’s launch, Tedman said the UFC, which also has a cryptocurrency fan token via the Socios.com platform, he was eager to take a big leap into the NFT space.
“Every organization has a different personality from them, and the UFC’s perspective is really to test with us and try new things with us,” he said. “It’s great to have a partner who, when it comes to how to launch a product, isn’t like, ‘Well, let’s do it small and see how it goes.’ It’s like: ‘Let’s make it as big as possible. Let’s do it at UFC size. ‘”
UFC Strike will be launched directly to the public and will not have a closed beta period, unlike Top Shot and the upcoming NFL All Day platform. Tedman said Dapper is considering live activation in future UFC events, as he has done with the NBA, and is also looking into additional utility for NFT UFC, such as potential community or game aspects.
The best shot in 2022
Today’s UFC news comes after yesterday’s launch of the first major NBA Top Shot ad campaign, which features Brooklyn Nets star and two-time NBA champion Kevin Durant.
Durant and his media organization Boardroom have signed a partnership with Dapper Labs in October to give him “a starring role in NBA Top Shot,” the company said at the time. Durant, who was a first investor in Coinbase and has also invested in other cryptocurrency startups, knows the Top Shot product well, according to Tedman.
“He is an elite athlete. He is an elite human being. He’s a tech investor, ”he said. “He has been with us for a long time. He’s been interested in the cryptocurrency community for a long time, so check every box there. He’s got swagger too, right? There’s nothing about him that wouldn’t be great to do this kind of campaign. “
For 2022, the NBA Top Shot team is “extremely focused on growing product participation and increasing accessibility,” said Tedman. After increased demand in early 2021 and Dapper’s time spent working on platform stability and customer support, the company believes Top Shot still has significant growth potential.
“We are still in the early days of this industry,” he said. “There’s nothing like ‘tried and true.’ We will try many things, but we will try many things to ensure that current collectors hold value, so they don’t feel like we are creating an experience they have no value in anymore. “
And the NFL All Day, which Dapper said would happen launch by the end of the current NFL season, is still on track to do so: Super Bowl LVI will take place on February 13, as a reference. The NFT platform is currently in closed beta test, and given the relative topicality of Dapper’s deal with the NFL, Tedman said they are focusing on nail polish ahead of the public launch.
“In the same way that every organization has a different personality and every partnership has a different cadence,” he said, “we are much newer to the NFL. And so we’re taking our time with that.
