The National Study Group (NRG) published a report on July 23 regarding sports fans’ perceptions of non-fungible tokens.
It suggested that there is a “trust gap” surrounding NFTs, which has undoubtedly been made worse by the number of news reports about buyers being duped or seeing the value of their collection drop overnight. NFTs have a reputation among sports fans as being an innovative and possibly very lucrative investment vehicle—but also one that can be completely volatile and carry a disproportionate level of risk.
Because of this, only 15% of sports fans have complete confidence in NFT marketplaces, and 30% believe they have little to no confidence in these websites. In Japan, where 4 in 10 consumers have little faith in NFT marketplaces, this issue is particularly prominent.
It also stated that 84 per cent of those surveyed thought there should be more restrictions on the purchase and sale of NFTs than there are at the moment. The majority of sports fans support governments and authorities being more involved in this developing business. Fans believe that stricter regulations should be put in place to guarantee that NFTs can only be purchased by consumers who are over the age of 18 and who fully understand the risks involved. They also believe that regulators should improve consumer protections to shield buyers from scams and establish a ceiling for potential losses.
To assure long-term success for their NFT collections, the author recommended that vendors offer sports fans something they can’t acquire from conventional media. The popularisation of NFTs within the sports community depends on establishing trust in NFT marketplaces, but this is only the first stage. The teams, players, and organizations selling NFTs will need to show fans the full range of opportunities made possible by this new technology in order to encourage them to buy them.
The report further said that 65% of fans believe that NFTs will only be successful if they are genuinely unique. It claims that 67% of sports fans will still favour an actual souvenir over its digital equivalent.
According to the author, it is impossible to predict when and how much the NFT industry will recover from its current downturn. He also said that it wouldn’t be shocking if the sports community’s enthusiasm for blockchain technology were to be somewhat dampened by this “crypto winter.” However, he is confident that NFTs will have a huge impact on how enthusiasts interact with their favourite leagues, players, and teams in the long run.