The South Sydney Rabbitohs have signed an exclusive three-year deal with Sportemon Go (SGO). The deal could see the Rabbitohs become Australia’s first sporting club to adopt and release a selection of digital assets via NFT’s (Non-Fungible Tokens) and a dedicated Fan Token Program including digital collections, memorabilia and augmented reality activities with a view to kicking off the collectables in early 2022.
- NFTs are digital collectables, which use the transparent and secure digital ledger of blockchain to authenticate one-of-a-kind items.
- This technology creates the opportunity for Rabbitohs fans to engage with the Club in new ways by creating the opportunity to collect and trade unique digital collectables.
The game changing deal, which was arranged end-to-end by Pickstar, a leading global marketplace for sports and entertainment talent, sees Sportemon Go recognised as an Associate Partner and referred to as the Official NFT Collectible and Fan Token (Cryptocurrency) Partner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Together they will leverage innovative and patent-pending technology, in ways never before seen in Aussie clubs, giving way to more exciting opportunities for Members to interact and engage with their club and players.
Rabbitohs CEO Blake Solly said the club is eager to activate these new digital tools to increase engagement with their supporter base.
“At the Rabbitohs we pride ourselves on being a bold and innovative club, and this opportunity alongside Sportemon Go is no exception,” Mr Solly said.
“We can’t wait to kick off pre-releases of interactive products including tokenised merchandise collections and other digital memorabilia which brings our Club’s rich history and story to life.
“It’s a fantastic new way for the Club and players to build stronger relationships with our Members, not just through the season but either side of it too.”
With a purpose to revolutionise the entire sports fan experience through technology and tokenisation, Sportemon Go will enable Rabbitohs fans to hunt, buy, collect, swap and trade NFTs of their favourite past and present Rabbitohs heroes in both the real world and in real time, creating the perfect synergy between physical and virtual fan experiences in our current world and the metaverse, enabling interaction with the Club like never before.
In the last few months, Sportemon Go secured nearly 30 of Australia’s best superstars and athletes, including Adam Gilchrist & Gary Ablett Jnr, becoming one of, if not Australia’s leading tokenised sports business. But they’re not stopping here, having already signed deals with global and historic sports clubs like Rangers & Hibernian Football Club as well as high profile athletes in the USA and the UK including Luke Shaw (Man Utd; England Left-back) and Andy Robertson (Liverpool FC; Captain of Scotland).
“SGO’s Fan Tokens and NFTs are unique, innovative and a complete game changer for increased fan entertainment, activation and engagement, but also provides a new and recurring revenue generation opportunity for sporting clubs and athletes alike.," said Ricky Jackson, CEO of SGO.
“Our ‘SporteNFTs’ are like nothing out there and we look forward to producing digital collectables and memorabilia which gives fans, investors, collectors, members and superfans the ability to get their hands on a range of very special collections.
“It's a thrilling space to develop, innovate and be the leader in and we are excited by the opportunity with a marquee club such as the South Sydney Rabbitohs."
Loren Renton, Pickstar’s Chief Growth Officer said the deal between Sportemon Go and the South Sydney Rabbitohs highlighted the power of technology to rapidly transform how clubs of today can engage with members and bring in new fans, with Sportemongo’s very unique approach.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure working with such an outstanding group of like-minded operators, who on both sides, are equally as passionate about putting club members first. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time with Shannon Donato & Adam Cosgrove from the Rabbitohs throughout this entire commercial process, they’re highly professional,” Renton said.
Pickstar, on behalf of Sportemon Go, are taking enquiries from and are currently engaged in a range of discussions with sporting clubs, rights holders and governing bodies who are interested in exploring fan token and next-level NFT technology programs in Australia and abroad.
ABOUT SPORTEMON GO
Sportemon Go was founded in 2021 by Ricky and Corey Jackson. With illustrious backgrounds in sports marketing and sporting software, the pair envisaged the creation of a platform to stand as a world premier in NFT augmented reality sports trading.
With a purpose to revolutionize both the gaming and NFT collectible industries, Sportemon Go will enable its users to hunt and collect NFTs of their favourite sporting heroes in both the real world and in real time. Creating the perfect synergy between our current world and the metaverse, participants will be able to interact at stadiums and sporting events like never before.
Sportemon Go is funded solely through its own cryptocurrency, a BEP20 token leveraging a smart contract on the Binance Block Chain network. This native cryptocurrency will power the entire economy within the platform allowing users to purchase NFT collectables, form their ultimate team, participate in mini games, earn rewards and much more.
Go to www.sportemongo.com for more information.
ABOUT PICKSTAR GROUP
Pickstar Group offers a simple, online Marketplace that helps people to connect with sports stars, celebrities and personalities. It's built an end-to-end digital platform that enables the fast and effective bookings of talent for any type of commercial arrangement.
Founded in 2017 by two former AFL athletes, James Begley and Matthew Pavlich, Pickstar Group has become the most trusted platform for facilitating paid talent engagements, large and small.
In addition to Pickstar's Marketplace, Pickstar Group offers VLAST, a tool created by players, for players. The tool offers talent and sporting bodies an easy and efficient way to manage all aspects of valuable talent appearances and activities. It improves the talent experience, reduces administrative costs, and removes human error - empowers talent, agencies, brands, publishers and rights owners to maintain and develop more meaningful relationships and appearances.
VLAST caters to the needs of the sponsorship, activation, and endorsement ecosystem. It offers a centralised dashboard providing automatic scheduling, messaging, and holistic overviews of the most important elements of activation.
With offices in Adelaide, New York and London, Pickstar Group's reach is truly global and with expansion into new star categories including chefs, media and wellness influencers, Pickstar can find a meaningful connection for any business and any opportunity.
See www.pickstar.pro for more information on Pickstar or www.govlast.com for more information on Vlast.
