US MLB to Employ NFTs for Bolstering Fan Insterest, Confirms Toronto Blue Jays’ CEO
The rapidly expanding popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has far exceeded the realm of the music industry and has reached the US Major League Baseball (MLB). The President and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays recently said that his team and the entire league are actively looking for ways to employ NFTs to bolster fan interest in the sport.
The MLB Heads for NFTs
NFTs are arguably the hottest trend in the cryptocurrency space, perhaps only sharing the popularity crown with DeFi. The ability to create and sell unique art on top of blockchain, more specifically on Ethereum, has far superseded the area of crypto enthusiasts.
The music industry was among the first to get a grasp on NFTs, but it went even further to sports. The National Basketball Association (NBA) also grabbed a major slice, and now the trend has reached another massively popular sport in North America – MLB.
During a recent interview with Bloomberg, Mark Shapiro, the CEO and President of the Toronto Blue Jays, said that the six-time East Division champion plans to take advantage of NFTs as well.
He believes that the entire league could increase the interest in the sport by adequately employing this “cutting edge opportunity.”
“We’re looking at those things more on the league side than an individual team side. That’s the way the MLB is structured. From an ownership perspective, it’s something we’re spending time on right now and [have] ventures in the works that will explore NFTs for MLB.”
MLB Chief Confirms
After NFTs hit the NBA, the MLB’s Chief Operations and Strategy Officer, Chris Marinak, also received questions if the organization he runs will make such a move.
Although he failed to provide precise details, he confirmed earlier this month that the MLB is “working on something in that space. We just aren’t at a point yet where we have it firmed up enough to communicate something specific.”
Shortly after, the league ended its licensing partnership with the game developer Lucid Sight Inc, which was the company behind the first known collection of baseball-related NFTs – MLB Champions.
