World’s First Cricket Exclusive NFT Marketplace Launched

Hyderabad: Cricket Foundation, the Singapore headquartered blockchain-based platform, built by the cricketing community, was established in April 2021. After tremendous progress in the past few months, the network has hit several important milestones.

Its ecosystem has already signed over 120+ partners from the cricket ecosystem, ranging from players, clubs, associations, business partners, game developers, etc. The number of users on the platform exceeded 50,000 even before launch and is complemented with over 60,000 followers on social media. The Cricket Token (CRIC), successfully listed on Indian and international crypto exchanges in the last week, with a market cap of over USD200M. CRIC Token is the medium of transactions for all applications built on the platform and is core to maintaining the security and integrity of the Cricket Blockchain platform, apart from being used for the platform’s governance.

Cricket Foundation, in a press conference, made a slew of announcements and many first among them.

CricketCrazy.io, the world's first NFT marketplace exclusive for cricket, being launched by Cricket Foundation goes live today. The platform has about 50+ unique moments from cricket history on the first day worth over USD200,000. The platform will add about 5 NFTs of iconic moments daily, with over 20,000+ cricket media assets in the library to choose from, contributed by its various partners.

CricketCrazy.io also gamifies the entire experience and is announcing over 50 million CRIC in reward pools for various challenges that are played on the platform. The first challenge – Beginner’s Luck – is going live today.

Cricket Foundation is extremely happy to welcome today some of the eminent partners which have recently joined the already star-studded list of founding partners like V.V.S. Laxman, Parthiv Patel, Wasim Akram, RP Singh, Piyush Chawla, Deep Dasgupta, Veda Krishnamurthy, Pragyan Ojha, Lance Klusener, Shaun Tait, Rikki Clarke, among many others. The latest entrants being welcomed today are BitBNS, Coingape, Digvijay Sinh Kathiawada, Michael Vaughan, Dermott Reeve, Wildfire Sports, Pradeep Mandhani, and currently, 2-3 partners are being added every day.

Cricket Foundation is happy to announce 3 new cricket ‘Play and Win Games’ which are being co-developed with partners and being launched on the network next month.

The Launch saw the unveiling of the Platform by the Ecosystem Co-Founders, including Parthiv Patel who attended the conference.

Speaking on the occasion, Pruthvi Rao, Co-Founder – Cricket Foundation said, “The Cricket Foundation is a Layer 1 technology, meaning it can host multiple applications that are built on top of it. NFTs are one such application that allows, for the first time in history, fans and collectors to collect digital media. Many other applications are ranging from gaming, esports, ticketing, merchandising, etc, which are already being built on this, which will change the way traditional businesses are operated. Zebi along with Smart Cricket, which worked on this opportunity as early as 2018, is proud to be one of the key contributors to this project”.

Atul Srivastava, Co-Founder – Cricket Foundation added “Cricket is a sport that is evolving at a remarkable pace, with its growing global appeal the democratization of cricket is inevitable. With the continuous addition of players, partners, and members, now fans across the world will have access to the widest collection of cricket NFTs offering them a chance to own and represent the priceless moments. The marketplace will soon launch gamification experiences to fans and users as well creating a unique platform for fan engagement”.

Celebrity cricketer and Co-Founder of Cricket Foundation, Parthiv Patel, speaking on the occasion, added “It is a novel way for us to engage with our fans, CricketCrazy presents a unique digital offering to cricketers and franchisees to enhance their reach as well as the relationship with fans by giving them a sense of belonging, involving them in community decisions, and keeping them engaged with the game. For the fans, NFTs are the only way to provably own digital sports assets and collectibles. “

Matthew Thacker, Director of Wildfire Sports, United Kingdom, an eminent media and communications specialist one of the Co-Founders of Cricket Foundation, said “From the early days of asking Don Bradman for his autograph, through to bidding on shirts, caps, bats or balls from the legendary players representing their greatest moments, collecting has always been extremely popular in cricket and introducing the digital world to this is a natural step. We’re really looking forward to the journey”.

Cricket Foundation digitally connects the cricketing world. While CricketCrazy, the NFT marketplace is its maiden offering, the vision is to eventually build several applications and uses within the platform meant for the cricket ecosystem powered by CRIC Token - like Merchandising, Licensing Rights Management, Ticketing, Fan Tokens and Engagement, eSports, Gaming, Gamification and Auction Endorsements apart from Digital Collectibles.