All the kids who play tennis and have a chance of having an international career know it: it is not easy to be able to afford tickets, clothes, stays and everything is resorted to, from raffles to help from neighbors.
Mariano Zabaletaa former tennis player who reached 21st place in the ATP ranking, experienced it firsthand and, looking for a way to help athletes finance themselves, came across Angel Lombardi and together with others two partners who came from the entrepreneurial background, They created a platform where people “invest” in players in exchange for a percentage of future prizes (which in tennis are public).
Lombardi says that a 14-year-old boy needs between US$30 and 40 thousand per year for 4 or 5 years to pursue a career abroad. And Zabaleta adds that today only the first 100 in the ranking have access to private sponsors.
“How can it be that with 1 billion fans of tennis, which is the fourth most popular sport in the world, so few players can make a living from the sport or fall by the wayside,” says Zabaleta.
The company, which has been in operation since January, is called Slice Token and received contributions from the Newtopia fund and angel investors including Monaco Peak. The other founding partners of the venture are Pablo Abadie (from the advertising business) and Juan Pablo Bruzzo (founder of the fintech Moni).
Mariano Zabaleta and Angel Lombardi, founders of Slice Token, a platform to invest in athletes.
It works as follows: each athlete can “issue” 20,000 tokens, which are equivalent to 30% of their future prizes. Thus, each investor receives 0.0015% of the dollars he earns in his career. That currency can be worth more or less, depending on whether the tennis player is already part of the ATP ranking or if he is just starting out (between US$ 20 and 350).
Pesos are invested that are converted into dollars (in reality, USDC stablecoins, a cryptocurrency tied to the dollar, are purchased with the credit card) and It is also charged in that currency that can be converted to dollars.
The platform already has about 40 players from 13 countries and seek to capture between 5 to 6 more among the best 100 or 200. The most recognized (and with the most expensive tokens) are the Argentines Tomas Etcheverry (31st in the ATP ranking) and Diego “Peque” Schwartzman (130) and the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas (65). They also support golf players, such as Tano Goyain a sport that like tennis makes the prizes of its tournaments public.
Each player decides how many tokens to sell, when and at what price. Etcheverry, for example, launched a batch at US$350 and They’re sold out and will soon offer another. If your career grows, you can sell your “currency” at a higher price. Tokens, like stocks, can be bought and sold on a secondary market and the player receives a percentage of that trade. Meanwhile, the company keeps 1 of every 10 tokens it sells.
Diego Schwartzman Photo EFE
Funding the athlete’s career also gives access to that player’s community, with special giveaways and exclusive material. “You can buy tokens from a junior and bet on it to revalue or buy from an established player and obtain an income”explains Lombardi. They already have 10,000 registered users from 43 countries.
“In the nine months that we have been in operation, there are already kids traveling thanks to us. Also There were already people who received dividends. We have players from Belarus or Italy, which shows that the financing problem is global,” says Lombardi.
If the athlete reaches the top 100, he will continue to share 30% of his profits with investors for two years. Then, this percentage will decrease by 5 points every 3 years, until reaching a minimum of 10% throughout the career.
2023-10-13 10:08:38
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