We’re All Going to Make It...to the English Premier League

Welcome back to Decentra Daily, where we like to play soccer when we aren’t glued to our screens. Oops *football for the purists.

Market sentiment analysis: We had our fingers crossed and said a little prayer as the markets opened this morning (we do it every Monday). And it worked! BTC and ETH have held strong, in addition to the major stock market indexes (DOW, NASDAQ, S&P). Warm weather and stable markets mean that I’m ordering extra guac with my nachos tonight on a patio somewhere! NFTs are tracking nicely as well with BAYC at a 91.5 ETH ($110K) floor, and Cryptopunks at a 66.95 ETH ($79k) floor. We aren’t out of the woods yet in this market, but let us enjoy the day. 

Estimated read time: 2 minutes 69 seconds😉

• WAGMI United and Adidas partnership

  • WAGMI United x Adidas NFTs

  • Crawley Town changes

  • Ownership group

  • How to get involved

• Winners and losers of the day

WAGMI United teams up with Adidas

As you may know (or not) Adidas has already made a splash in the NFT space with their Into the Metaverse collab with Bored Ape Yacht Club, gmoney, and Pixel Vault. Now they are exploring the future of sport through their Web3 partnership with WAGMI United.

Here is the full press release on the partnership, below we have compiled the important details from it.

In April 2022, Crawley Town Football Club, was purchased by WAGMI United. Crawley Town plays in EFL League Two. 

This purchase marked the first time a Web3 group has purchased a professional sports team (please fact check us if we’re wrong).

WAGMI United aims to remodel the traditional way sports teams are run. They want to be “the internet’s team.” By releasing NFTs they will establish a global community that will be able to have a say in the decision making of the club, and shape its future. 

Adidas is involved in the NFT side of things, as well as being the official kit supplier of Crawley Town F.C.

WAGMI United x Adidas NFTs

The WAGMI United NFT drops on July 6th, so keep your ear to the ground for Premint and public mint details. We will share on our socials when further details are announced (so turn on notifications).

Here is what the NFT will give holders:

• Access to club perks 

• Redeeming physical and digital merch 

• Voting power on key football club issues

The most interesting aspect of this is not in club perks, which include merchandise, but rather in giving fans the ability to run a club. 

Club co-chairmen Preston Johnson and Eben Smith, have stated that fans/NFT holders will decide if they keep their positions if WAGMI United does not gain promotion to League One by the end of their second season in charge. 

In an interview with inews Johnson and Smith talked about how they perceived NFTs fit into sports. They shunned the exploitative nature of Liverpool FC trying to sell 171,072 NFTs to fans, of which only 9,721 were bought. The benefits were vague and underwhelming, and we assume like >95% of their supporters don’t care for NFTs. Big miss here for LFC.

Instead WAGMI is going in reverse, focusing on NFT lovers and taking football to them. Imagine being able to decide through voting (if you own the NFT) how the transfer budget will be spent 🤯

“An example is in January if we have £200,000 to spend in the transfer window. We’ve seen us playing for a couple of months, we have an idea of where our strengths and weaknesses lie and we have ­season ticket holders and NFT holders and we give them a vote on how we distribute those funds in the transfer window.” - Preston Johnson

Adidas is also ready to go full throttle with this partnership. Erika Wykes-Sneyd, the VP of Brand Communication for Adidas Originals stated:

"This partnership with WAGMI United opens fresh possibilities in sport for fans to go from being supporters to having a true stake in a team, all with the ambition to build a deep sense of community and belonging around the beautiful game."

Well, this lets global fans the ability to have a say…..but what about the Crawley Town locals? Will they have to buy NFTs to have a say? Nope, WAGMI United will create a fan council that will meet regularly with the owners of the club to offer feedback and ideas. Sounds like a win-win for local, as well as global supporters.

Crawley Town changes have started already

The new ownership group has been quick to act. They have done the following:

New Manager

Kevin Betsy has been appointed as the new manager. He was previously the coach of Arsenal's U-23 team, and was appointed in part due to openness to work with new ownership to integrate data and Web3 decisions into the running of the club…..can you say “Money (foot)ball”.

Signing of top goal scorer

Dom Telford was the top League Two goal scorer last season for Newport County (26 goals in all competitions). He has been signed for 3 years, and immediately signals the desire for significant on field improvements for Crawley Town.

Off field changes

The club has brought in a video analyst, a strength and conditioning coach, chef, and head medical team member. In addition there was a 5 figure donation made to the club’s foundation, which has trickled down to fans, slashing season tickets costs by 30 percent. 

These are just the first of many changes we can expect to see at WAGMI United/Crawley Town with such a strong ownership group behind them.

Ownership group

Johnson and Smith may be the most involved members of the ownership group, but if you look at WAGMI United's website your eyes will light up at the other names in the ownership group. It is a powerhouse of Web3 personalities, with many successful NFT project founders and innovators involved. Here are some of the names you may recognize:

• Gary Vaynerchuk a.k.a. Gary Vee — Chairman of VaynerX and founder of VeeFriends

• Sean Gearin a.k.a. Gfunk — Founder and CEO of Pixel Vault, creators of PUNKS Comic and MetaHero Universe

• gmoney — Renowned NFT cultural influencer, educator and community leader

• Erick Calderon a.k.a Snowfro — Legendary NFT artist and founder/CEO of Art Blocks

• Jacob Martin — Founder of 2 Punks Capital and one of the premier legal minds in Web3

• Hunter Orrell - Influential investor, creator, and collector in the NFT space

How to get involved

To get involved in “the internet’s team” we recommend following WAGMI United on Twitter and joining their discord. Make sure to turn on notifications for announcements in preparation for the NFT drop on July 6th.

Additionally, you will likely want to have your crypto wallet (e.g., Metamask) funded and ready to go if you are interested in purchasing a WAGMI United x Adidas NFT, that will help shape the future of this 125 year old club! 

The goal is to take Crawley Town to the English Premier League…..can you imagine the scenes if they became the next fairytale team….let’s make a Leicester City 2.0 controlled by the fans and the new ownership group, based on the decentralized ethos of Web3.

Winners and Losers

The projects that have stood out to us the most in the past 24 hours, the good, and bad.

Winner: Moonrunners - Floor price up 114% in the last 24 hours (0.35 ETH → 0.75 ETH)

Another entry in the no discord, no roadmap, free mint space, Moonrunners are pixelated wolves with funny hats and sunglasses. All communication via twitter, fairly mysterious but from what I can tell there may be some sort of game? A… Wolf Game? People seem to love these things. Tons of volume.

Loser: A:\Aiko Virtual - Floor Price down 27% in the last 24 hours (0.169 ETH → 0.133 ETH)

‘Aiko Virtual is a collection of 8,888 NFTs that are all about "Cyber Cute"’. Cyber Cute?? That’s a new one. They’ve got a 2 season roadmap, which looks relatively ambitious. Fully fleshed out backstory. Story seems like it could be an anime series, but they seem more focused on doing events and selling merchandise. Doing everything right but in this space, that doesn't mean shit sometimes!

Headlines of the day

• GTA 6 to feature crypto rewards, new leak claims

• DeFi Isn’t Dead, It’s Evolving: Towards Sustainable On-Chain Liquidity

• Formerly rich NFT buyers party through the pain

• Gilbert NFT patches to benefit Rangers' Garden of Dreams Foundation

Disclaimer: Nothing in this article/newsletter should be considered financial advice. The purpose is to inform readers of the current trends and news in the web3 space. We encourage every reader to do their own research and not act upon information put forth by Decentra Daily.