NFL, NFTs & CRICKET, OH MY!

Gary, CAO of Medallion XLN

While the National Football League remains the most valued sporting league in the world. Go Bengals!!! According to CNN Business, on cost-per-match terms, the Indian Premier League (IPL), has now overtaken the English Premier League and ranks only behind the National Football League in the United States, according to Bloomberg. What! I’ve personally never seen a cricket match in my life. I’ve never heard any of my friends, associates, or co-workers ever mention cricket. I’ve got friends of many nationalities living in the States and abroad. So how has cricket become the second most valued sporting league in the world?

First, a bit of history. Cricket is another sport that was created by the British, and they spread it across the world during the time of the British Empire. Its popularity is staggering. But why? Several simple reasons. It’s easy to learn, and it's highly entertaining. It also caters to different tastes. The reason is that there are three different formats of the sport, Test, T20 and ODI, and It's age-friendly. Professional cricketer William Rhodes played when he was 52 years old. While Herbert Ironmonger, William Gilbert Grace, and George Gunn all played when they were 50. On a non-professional level, cricket is a sport that can be played by anyone, regardless of their age. Now you’ve got my attention. Sign me up, coach!

The International Cricket Council, known as the ICC, declares that 125 countries around the world play cricket. One country where it’s enormously popular is in India. They live and breathe this sport. Anyone who plays for the Indian National Team becomes a national hero. All in all, it is estimated that there are about 2.5 billion cricket fans across the globe, the vast majority being Indian. Besides watching and playing the sport, 90% of those 2.5 billion fans also love to bet on cricket online.

Cricket’s amazing popularity has not gone unnoticed by those in the financial sector. According to CNN Business, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani has now added a massive cricket deal to his empire. A venture backed by Ambani has won the digital rights to air the Indian Premier League(IPL). Viacom18 – a joint venture between Paramount and Ambani’s Reliance Industries, has secured the streaming rights for about 238 billion rupees ($3.05 billion), Jay Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India said on Twitter.

With all this excitement could NFTs be far behind? Of course not. In an article featured on Access wire titled Bowled.io - World’s First Play-to-Earn Cricket Game Sells Out In Seconds. The genesis drop of NFTs featuring NFTs of cricket players, stadiums, and many more - sold out in seconds during the drop, which took place on opensea.io. This NFT collection of almost everything related to cricket has enabled the fans to use their cricket-related skills and reap exciting social and economic benefits. With this genesis series launch, the platform has launched digital assets that are packed with utilities across cricket verse.

When the collection was launched on opensea.io, it had listed 5% of total assets from epic, rare, and super rare categories. The community booking, which took place before the genesis drop and consisted of 145 unique assets, sold out even before the listing was complete. With some assets going up to 9x the total floor price, which was a huge vote of confidence from the community, as well as shining a spotlight on the potential that Play-to-Earn games hold for the future.

Cricketcrazy.io is another player in the cricket NFT world, according to an article featured in NDTV Profit, edited by Animesh Singh. For those who have been crazy about cricket and also hold a fancy for cryptocurrency, there’s good news. The recently established Cricket Foundation (the first of its kind crypto ecosystem dedicated to the sport), co-founded by former cricketer Parthiv Patel along with Pruthvi Rao, provides fans a platform to have exclusive ownership of digital cricket memorabilia and collectibles, as both of them love to describe such items through cricketcrazy.io, the world’s first cricket exclusive NFT marketplace. They have also launched the world’s first cricket tokens, which have now been listed on crypto exchanges across the country. The platform, apart from allowing cricket lovers to exclusively own these digital collectibles, also allows the cricketers associated with it the opportunity to monetize their digital assets, thus helping them to supplement their income post-retirement from the game.

I’ve been sleeping on cricket. I’m awake now. But don’t you sleep on Medallion XLN. We’re about to come out full-blooded scoring, winning runs with a reverse sweep by our batsman (non-gender term cricket term). Thanks to all of our subscribers. Please share with your millions of friends. We got next!

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