Bristol-based sports media giant ESPN is partnering with a tech company co-founded by now-unretired football great Tom Brady to release branded non-fungible tokens, also known as NFTs.
ESPN announced Wednesday it has finalized a multi-year deal with Los Angeles-based Autograph — formed last year by Brady and business partner Dillon Rosenblatt — to develop and sell collections of digital art and photo pieces.
Autograph functions as an NFT platform, helping athletes and entertainers create and promote their own tokens.
The first collection marketed as part of the “Autograph X ESPN” line features ESPN magazine covers of Brady himself, commemorating highlights from his 22-year career in the NFL. Its debut on Wednesday was timed to coincide with the wide release of ESPN’s 10-part documentary series on the star quarterback, “Man in the Arena: Tom Brady.”
A second collection of Brady-centered NFTs will be released once the final episode of the docuseries airs on ESPN+.
NFTs, which are stored on a type of digital ledger called a blockchain, have seen a rapid rise in popularity as speculative assets since 2020, riding a wave of excitement surrounding cryptocurrencies, to which they are sometimes compared, and the development of the so-called metaverse, shared virtual worlds, where NFTs are envisioned as the basis for certain trades and transactions.
A number of large consumer-facing brands, including Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch and Yum! Brands, the parent company of chains such as KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, have made the leap into the fast-growing market, mainly as a means of promotion and marketing.
Though digital art may represent the best-known form of NFTs, online games, music, film and other media have also been turned into tokens.
