Are you a passionate sports fan dreaming of owning a share of your favorite sports team? Explore Sports DAOs, where fans can collectively make decisions, from hiring coaches to signing new players. These decentralized organizations (DAOs) democratize ownership, offering a unique chance to engage actively in your team’s journey. Discover the benefits, the steps to co-ownership, real-world examples, and the future landscape of sports DAOs. Seize the opportunity to be more than a fan—become a co-owner and shape the future of sports.
Becoming a co-owner of your favorite sports team with DAOs involves, first, researching and finding a sports DAO you have an interest in co-owning, one that aligns with your goals, then, purchasing tokens of that sports DAO that owns the team, and finally participating in decision-making processes of the team DAO.
Understanding Sports DAOs
Imagine being able to vote on important decisions, such as who to hire as a coach, what players to sign, or what strategies to use in the championship. Or maybe you just want to support your team and get some rewards, say exclusive merchandise, tickets, or access to events.
Well, thanks to sports DAO. These fantasies are no longer mere possibilities in the near future, but are now current reality and rare opportunity.
DAOs, pronounced as “dows,” are gaining widespread fame. As of the current moment, DeepDAO.io acknowledges the existence of more than 2,000 DAOs spanning various sectors, boasting a collective treasury of $21.3 billion. Approximately 182 of the DAOs monitored by deepdao.io held a treasury value or Assets Under Management (AUM) of close to $10 billion.
To begin with, a DAO, or Decentralized Autonomous Organization, is a type of organization that is run by self-executing rules encoded as computer programs called smart contracts. In essence, DAOs are community-driven organizations and operate on blockchain technology, which is a network of computers that store and verify transactions securely and transparently.
In a DAO, decisions are made by the members of the organization, who hold tokens. These tokens represent their voting power and right of ownership in and of the organization. Traditionally, sports teams are owned by individuals or groups of investors. These owners make decisions about the team, which staff to hire, how to manage finances, etc. However, this model is changing with the advent of sports DAOs.
What Then Are Sports DAOs?
Sports DAOs, short for decentralized autonomous organizations, are innovative entities, or interest groups, if you like, that leverage blockchain technology and smart contracts to enable collective ownership and decision-making for sports teams. Now, these DAOs operate on a decentralized network, where members hold ownership tokens that grant them voting rights and a say in the team’s operations, such as which new player (s) to sign on, jersey designs for a new season, brand advertisers, and tenure of coaches. By pooling resources and leveraging the power of community, sports DAOs aim to democratize team ownership and create a more inclusive and engaging fan experience.
The DAO Maker and the Ukraine DAO are typical examples of rising DAOs that provide a growth technology solution for startups, mobilizing for a national cause or forming formidable fronts, respectively.
All in all, today, sports fandom is getting a feel of DAO’s revolutionary contributions to the sports team ownership agenda. From providing a unique opportunity for fans to have more skin in their darling sports team, to the rare privilege of being able to be decision-makers, in how the team or sports should run, the benefits of investing in sports DAOs are promising, evolving, and possibly endless.
The Benefits of Sports DAOs
Sports DAOs offer several advantages over traditional ownership models. As previously mentioned, the benefits of sports DAOs are yet to be seen, from social benefits to financial dividends to sports political espionage, the list is almost endless. It is indeed a jawbreaker for sports fans all around the planet to be doing what they love while owning some part of that fun and reaping a part of the rewards of their participation.
Three key benefits—amongst many others— of co-owning a sports team through DAOs are briefly highlighted below:
- Firstly, they provide fans with a unique opportunity to have a direct stake in their favorite sports teams, fostering a stronger sense of engagement and loyalty.
- Secondly, DAOs enable transparent decision-making, with voting rights distributed among token holders. This ensures that important team decisions are made collectively, taking into account the preferences and interests of the fan community.
- Lastly, sports DAOs have the potential to unlock new revenue streams for teams through innovative fundraising mechanisms, such as the sale of ownership tokens or exclusive merchandise.
Steps to Co-own Your Beloved Sports Team With Sports DAOs
To invest in a DAO is in a way to bet on the wisdom of the crowd and not just the wisdom, but on the collective capacity of the crowd to work together.
Financial advisor and Professor at Harvard Law, Noah Feldman
Investing in sports DAOs is a new but very promising market. With over $220 billion in revenues annually from fan betting to tickets for live games, investors are now exploring this new frontier–DAOs, as a possible profitable venture.
To own a part of your sports team using DAOs, below are the steps to take:
Step 1: Research The Sports Team You Want to Co-own
The first step in co-owning a part of your favorite sports team with sports DAOs is to conduct thorough research. Before investing in a sports team, it’s essential to research the team’s ownership structure, financial history, and future prospects. Whether it’s a specific team or an entire sport, you can find this information on the sports or team’s official website, social media pages, or news articles.
Step 2: Find a DAO That Invests in Sports Teams And Aligns With Your Vision, Goal, or Aspiration
Once you have done your due diligence on the sports or sports team you want to co-own, the next step is to find a DAO that invests in that sports or sports team of your interest, their vision and mission statement. Several DAOs invest in sports teams, for various and differing reasons. Some examples are CortDAO, CO92 DAO, Krause House (basketball) and WAGMI United LLC, and a couple of others. You can find these DAOs on blockchain platforms such as Ethereum, Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain.
In the latter section of this article, we’ll delve into a few latest use cases of sports team DAOs in the world.
Step 3: Buy DAO Tokens
After you have identified a DAO that invests in your sports teams of choice, and suits your purpose or defined goal, you can proceed to buy their DAO tokens.
DAO tokens are digital assets that represent ownership in the DAO. You can search out and buy their DAO tokens on cryptocurrency exchange platforms like Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken.
Step 4: Participate in Decision-making Processes
As a DAO token holder of your sports team, you now have exclusive rights and privileges, to participate in decision-making processes in that sports team. You can vote on issues such as which sports team to invest in—depending on the goals of the sports DAOs you’re a token holder of—, how much to invest, when to sell your shares, or when to buy or sell players, and the list goes on and on.
Real-World Examples of Sports DAOs
DAOs are changing the landscape of sports team ownership, as pointed out earlier, by allowing fans to become co-owners of their favorite teams. This is done by purchasing tokens that represent a share in the team. This model has been successfully implemented by some sports teams around the world.
In this section, we’ll highlight three of these successful ones to date, shaking the world of sports fandom and redefining engagement.
Krause House (Basketball)
Krause House is a sports DAO focused on bringing the first fan-governed team to the NBA. Yeah, you heard right, the National Basketball Association! Their long-term vision is to empower fans of every professional franchise—whatever it might be—to collectively own and have decision-making rights over their favorite teams. Through a three-tiered NFT system, Krause House grants token holders decision-making power over team location, executive hires, marketing and events, and ownership decisions.
This is a major leap for the NBA championship, and a ‘yet-to-be-seen’ opportunity for all her fans globally to savor their cherished sports more closely and participate in not just the fun of the NBA games, but be a part of the making of the fun. What some may call a ‘taste-your-dish’ privilege.
Links DAO (Golf)
Links DAO is another trending and successful sports DAO. It is a pay-to-join DAO with the aim to collectively purchase and own a golf course. Token holders in Links DAO gain access to exclusive gated Discord channels, governance power, and the opportunity to shape the future of the golf course. The DAO leverages NFTs as a means of membership and provides a platform for golf enthusiasts to come together and influence the development of the golfing experience.
WAGMI United – Football (Soccer)
WAGMI–which stands for “We’re All Gonna Make It” United, is a sports DAO with the goal of reinventing broken legacy in sports management models. They aim to give fans a meaningful voice in the decision-making process and take their favorite team, Crowley Town FC, from the smallest club in the English Football League to the Premier League. Similarly, through NFT ownership, token holders have decision-making rights over certain aspects of the team’s future.
WAGMI United has garnered more momentum, in recent years, partially attributable to a significant collaboration with Adidas. Their manifesto elaborates on this partnership, thus:
The Democratization of Sports Ownership
The emergence of sports DAOs represents a significant shift towards the democratization of sports ownership.
Just as the Ethereum network continues to show us the way toward a fairer internet, Sports DAOs will show us the way toward the future of fandom.
Adam Miller of MIDAO in an article for CoinDesk’s Culture Week
In the past, team ownership has been limited to a select group of billionaires, with fans having no meaningful say in team decisions. Sports DAOs disrupt this model by giving power back to the fans and offering them a voice and more skin in the governance and decision-making processes of the game they so cherish.
According to Miller, the rhetoric by some naysayers now about the vision of sports DAO is “You think fans can make good decisions for the team? There is no way a democratic vote can produce the same outcome as professional management!” To which he responds “These skeptics may have a point. But the key idea is that by enabling fans to have a greater stake in the outcome of the games, they can assume responsibility for whatever transpires, whether positive or negative.
Simultaneously, the team can expand its fan base, regardless of the outcome, as the adoption of a DAO grants fans a democratic-like influence over management, making the team and the game more captivating and enjoyable. It might even result in a shift of support away from rival teams” (paraphrased).
As DAOs gain more prestige and acceptance, we can expect to see more fan-owned teams and increased fan engagement in the sports industry.
Potential Challenges and Considerations
While the concept of sports DAOs holds great promise, there are several challenges and considerations to keep in mind. Legal and regulatory frameworks surrounding sports ownership and governance may pose obstacles for DAOs. Ensuring effective decision-making and avoiding gridlock or centralization is another challenge to address. Additionally, robust security measures must be in place to protect against hacks and ensure the integrity of the DAO and DAO tokens, as well as token holders.
Conclusion
Sports DAOs present a groundbreaking and exciting opportunity for fans to become co-owners of their favorite sports teams. These decentralized autonomous organizations leverage blockchain technology and collective decision-making to bring fans closer to the teams they love. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can join the movement and play an active role in shaping the future of sports ownership. Remember to do your research, invest wisely, and participate in decision-making processes to make the most of your investment.
