The popularity of Fintech is on the rise. With more organizations exploring ways to leverage technology to drive business growth and overall transformation. Including . . . you guessed it, the sports world (Especially Football leagues).
Fintech basically means “Financial Technology”. After the pandemic hit, so many companies were forced to evolve, including banks. However, the slow response by current financial institutions gave birth to these digital financial problem solvers.
After gaining tremendous success in the general financial field, the Fintech industry is now making waves in the sports world. Including the NFL. Who recently announced their partnership with Alliance Data. Together, they’ll be providing a richer experience for your everyday football fan.
Mind you, this is different from Fintech lending. Which is a form of hybrid banking that uses technology and data to provide loans. Similar to payday loans but on a much larger scale.
Alliance Data’s main focus is to help users purchase things vs lending. Their point system will allow the fan of a specific team to buy the latest fan gear and more.
Another company, Sportemon Go, is using blockchain technology to offer NFTs of athletes worldwide. In fact, they have recently hinted at a deal with an NFL team so let’s see how that plays out. Their goal is to turn NFL stars into digital art and bring other forms of collectibles to the digital world (Like NFL cards, etc). Sportemon Go has also bought a giant stadium in TCG World’s metaverse. Known as Sporteverse. Where fans can play digital sports games such as kicking and throwing footballs around, etc (Details to be announced).
Genius, another tech firm, has signed with the NFL and has agreed to provide sports betting data.
Which will help everybody involved make the right moves (As they see fit). This deal with Genius could be valued at well over a billion dollars.
So you can imagine how fast the NFL and other sports leagues are jumping on the tech and Fintech bandwagon.
Sokin, another player in the Fintech space (Payment provider) has signed with the Miami Dolphin as their payment provider. They are currently operating in over 200 countries and do business in over 38 currencies.
Their goal is to bring the Miami Dolphins into this new digital economy and help bridge the gap between fans and the organization.
Future of Fintech and the sports world
A number of changes are set to happen in this field over the coming years including, but not limited to:
– The rise of digital banks which will be improving their services and developing new ones that meet customer demands. Hinting at more partnerships with more football teams, betting, esports and more.
– The development of new types of financial institutions such as robo advisers and digital banks. Services that could be offered in metaverses or sporteverse.
– The rise of blockchain technology which a lot of sports institutions have already jumped on (Fan tokens, etc).
So overall, the future of Fintech and the sports world does look bright.
With the new and upcoming demographic being so digitally well versed, there is no stopping on where this new friendship will go.
Especially with the NFL successfully entering Roblox (Metaverse), the future of sports and Fintech will really be on another level.
