‘Fan Controlled Football League’ Goes Crypto With $40M Investment From Animoca, Delphi

The Fan Controlled Football League (FCF) is gearing up for its 2nd play aft closing a $40 cardinal Series A led by Animoca Brands and Delphi Digital, the league announced Wednesday.

The FCF is an alternate nonrecreational sports league wherever fans ballot connected real-time decisions for their team, including play calling and roster management.

“We telephone the league a real-life video game,” FCF CEO Sohrob Farudi told CoinDesk successful an interview. “When you look astatine each the elements of the league, the buying and selling of gear, squad governance, assemblage building, it conscionable truly lends itself good to a token model.”

The backing volition beryllium utilized to treble the league’s size from 4 teams to 8 teams, 2 of which volition beryllium owned by non-fungible token projects Bored Ape Yacht Club and Gutter Cat Gang.

NFT owners from those projects volition person archetypal dibs connected minting an NFT from the FTC Ballerz collection earlier its nationalist sale, which assistance “team governance rights, play-to-earn crippled mechanics and unsocial IRL experiences” to its holders, according to a property release.

As of now, the “play-to-earn” mechanic of the league comes from performance-based rewards fixed to each team’s token holders, but the league says it has plans for an “Axie Infinity benignant tokenomics model” that it’s moving connected with Animoca Brands and Delphi Digital, a typical told CoinDesk.

The league’s pivot into NFT communities headlining its caller franchises is yet different indicator of however culturally important projects similar Bored Ape Yacht Club person become, present listed alongside the league’s jock and personage squad owners Marshawn Lynch, Quavo and Bob Menery.

While the league streamed its games exclusively connected Twitch past year, its 2nd play volition besides beryllium broadcast connected NBC and Peacock successful a bid to grow its audience.