Rario, an NFT platform devoted to cricket, mentioned on Thursday it had raised $120 million in collection A funding. The spherical was led by the enterprise capital arm of Indian fantasy sports activities agency Dream Sports.
With the brand new funding, and a partnership with Dream, the agency will now supply cricket-themed NFTs to Dream Sports’ 140 million customers in India. Given regulatory scrutiny in the direction of cryptocurrencies in India, the platform will solely settle for fiat, not crypto, it mentioned in a blog post.
Previous traders in Rario embrace enterprise capital companies Presight and Kingsway, in addition to blockchain gaming main Animoca Brands.
Rario corners the cricket NFT market
The Singapore-based firm claims to have the most important share of cricket NFT rights globally. It lately signed a multi-year, unique partnership with Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association.
The agency additionally has unique partnerships with 6 worldwide cricket leagues, together with the rights to over 900 cricketers.
Rario mentioned it has bought over 50,000 tokens since its launch, with the United States, UK, Australia and India being its top-four markets.
Ankit Wadhwa, co-founder of Rario, mentioned that cricket is the second-largest sport on this planet, with over 1.5 billion followers.
Cricket an untapped market?
While sports activities tokens will not be a novel idea, the area has been largely dominated by basketball or soccer. The National Basketball Association (NBA) is among the largest gamers within the sports activities NFT market, with its Top Shot NFT market seeing gross sales of practically $1 billion since its 2021 launch.
The NBA has additionally ventured into creating dynamic NFTs, though the mission has met its own set of problems.
Several European soccer golf equipment additionally capitalized on the rising reputation of NFTs. English Liverpool lately launched a set of hero-themed NFTs.
But cricket has not seen related forays, regardless of the game having huge followings throughout Asia, Australia and Africa. Rario could possibly be poised to capitalize on this untapped market by providing cricket-themed collectibles.
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