NBA team Sacramento Kings has entered a partnership with blockchain events and ticketing company BlockParty to introduce a new rewards program for its fans, using a proprietary token reportedly called ‘Kings Token’.
Kings Token is to be implemented into what it describes as the NBA’s “first predictive gaming application’ called ‘Call the Shot’, prior to its 2019-2020 season.
According to CoinDesk, which first broke the news, the predictive platform was specifically developed “in anticipation of the legalization of sports betting in California (the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal restriction on sports betting in May 2018)”.
Furthermore, Blockparty is to act as a custodian of the fans’ data transmitted through the app, collecting and interpreting purchases and attendance activities to calculate and allocate tokenized rewards.
The Kings Token token is also to be integrated into ‘Golden 1 Center’, the Sacramento Kings’ sports arena; as well as its mobile app which attempts to offer a comprehensive entertainment ecosystem to its fans, and can be found on the Apple App and Google Play stores. It is through this app, that the rewards will be dispersed.
App features include: ordering food from your mobile device, and management of digital ticket data – all features suited to cryptocurrency and the blockchain.
Upon a quick browse of the respective stores that the Golden 1 Center app is available on however, you will discover that the user reviews are mixed – with an average score of approximately 3.5/5 on each. Among the top criticisms are regarding service unavailability, and general technical issues.
This of course wouldn’t be the first time that the Sacramento Kings has dipped its toes into cryptocurrency, having previously teamed up with the ‘Build. Black.’ coalition and MiningStore.com to establish a Bitcoin mining scheme back in 2018.
It was all part of a program which the sports team had established called ‘MiningForGood’, which distributed funds obtained through cryptocurrency mining towards non-profit education and workforce development initiatives in the Sacramento area.
Other notable examples of cryptocurrency in sports include Litecoin partnerships with Glory Kickboxing and the Miami Dolphins.
Quotes
“We have only just begun to see the benefits of blockchain technology as it transforms the way business is conducted worldwide, ensuring secure transactions across multiple sectors and customers…
We are committed to continuing to deliver the best fan experience and are excited to bring this transformative technology to life to award our loyal fans through experiences in a secure and transparent way.”
Vivek Ranadivé (Sacramento Kings Chairman, CEO and Governor)
“We’re thrilled to be working with the most technologically innovative team in professional sports and help them bring the latest in blockchain technology to the NBA…
Our technology should give the Kings more flexibility in how they reward their most loyal fans. We expect others in the NBA will follow the Kings lead in the years to come.”
Shiv Madan (Blockparty CEO)
