As the Swiss “Blick” reported, the three-time Grand Slam champion took part Stan Wawrinka on the virtual NFT tennis game “Ballman Project” and also acted as a figurehead. After the cryptocurrency project has so far flopped, the 39-year-old Swiss is threatened with a lawsuit from disappointed investors.
by Dietmar Kaspar
last edited: May 2, 2024, 6:15 p.m
© Getty Images
Things are currently neither going well for Stan Wawrinka on or off the pitch.
The new, quarter-round tennis game “Ballman Project” should be absolutely trustworthy for tennis-loving cryptocurrency investors, especially in Switzerland. None other than the three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka is emblazoned on the website “ballmanproject.io”, which is still available, raising the US Open winner’s trophy. Even if the 39-year-old’s participation status is described as “ispired by Stan Wawrinka”, he calls on the tennis-savvy NFT investor to participate immediately: “I play on Ballman! Enter the Game.”
However, the almost 2,600 investors have completely lost their desire for the game, in which the participants are supposed to buy players worth 200 to 600 francs and benefit from the winnings from the virtual tournaments. The founders of the project are said to have earned almost four million euros in cryptocurrencies, but the participants in the game only suffered losses. This is what a participant on the Swiss radio station “RTS” said: “The playing value of my “Ballman” has fallen from 318 to 12 francs. Where did the 4 million for the project go?”
When asked by the broadcaster, French businessman Prosper Masquelier-Partouche commented: “We are not succeeding in terms of visitor numbers and we have not achieved profitability.” Nevertheless, the 43-year-old wants to stick to the project and keep the game accessible.
Investors are particularly disappointed with Davis Cup winner Stan Wawrinka, who is said to have received $440,000 in the cryptocurrency Ethereum for his work. He defends himself with the statement: “My advances were paid back and I was paid for my image and the time I invested in the project.” However, it remains doubtful whether Wawrinka only participated in the project temporarily. According to the French commercial register, he is one of the main shareholders of the company behind the game. However, the disappointed investors do not want to give up the game yet and are planning a class action lawsuit against the project.
With all the noise off the pitch, things are anything but smooth for Wawrinka in terms of sport. In the current season, the veteran has never been able to win more than one match at a tournament and after his opening defeat against the Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas at the highly prized ATP Challenger tournament in Aix-en-Provence, France, he has just two wins this season .
Here is the individual tableau from Aix-en-Provence
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2024-05-02 17:03:00
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