Japanese basketball team Hiroshima Dragonflies to launch NFTs overseas

A Hong Kong-based company which provides token business support for Japanese companies will sell non-fungible tokens of Japanese B.League professional basketball team Hiroshima Dragonflies in June.

The NFTs will be launched on platforms outside of Japan and dedicated websites in order to attract fans from other parts of the world. RBBC Hong Kong, which provides the NFT overseas expansion support for Japanese companies, will handle the sales. 

The NFTs will include images and videos of dunk shots, defence and other plays and highlight scenes from Hiroshima Dragonflies games. Some of these will be rare items. The NFTs will be sold in packages, which would be priced around US$50 to US$100 each. 

The launch comes as sport teams are experiencing a significant decline in sales due to COVID-19 restrictions on spectators.

Some other sport teams have also launched their NFTs recently. Mercari and Pacific League Marketing jointly launched ‘Pacific League Exciting Moments beta’ in late 2021 to sell NFTs such as footage and memorial scenes involving six baseball teams. The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo “Big Boss” has launched a collaborative series of NFTs taken by renowned photographer Leslie Kee on the META ALL-STARS website.

In March, sports subscription service DAZN launched a sports-specific NFT marketplace called DAZN MOMENTS. Joan Laporta, president of Spanish League football club FC Barcelona, has announced that the team will launch its own NFTs to improve its financial situation that has been hit by COVID. He has stated that he intends to launch his own NFT and crypto assets, as well as a metaverse.