By
Steve Muchoki
April 24th, 2024
Binance Labs says it sunk $4 million in NFT-oriented sports platform Ultimate Champions to support innovation in blockchain gaming.
Binance Labs has invested $4 million in the free-to-play fantasy sports platform Ultimate Champions. According to the Binance venture capital arm and accelerator, it made the ‘strategic investment’ for Ultimate Champions to further develop its games. The sports platform will channel some of the funds toward community building and securing additional sports partnerships.
The Binance Labs-backed Ultimate Champions initiative will deploy on the BNB Chain and land on the Binance Fan Token Platform. This development would make possible a slew of perks and exciting offerings for players, including enhanced fan experience and better team engagement. In addition, Ultimate Champions will provide in-game wallets to facilitate player onboarding and fiat payment support for NFT packs and tokens. This development implies that players could own, trade, and collect officially licensed player cards in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Reports also state that Ultimate Champions has initiated an exclusive partnership with EuroLeague, a premier European-based professional basketball management company. Furthermore, the NFT fantasy sports platform also looks to expand into fantasy basketball next year.
Binance Labs, Ultimate Champions Executives Comment on Web3-focused Gaming Initiative
Speaking on the Ultimate Champions project as a staple of Web3 gaming, Binance co-founder and Head of Binance Labs Yi He said:
“The world of Web3 gaming is expanding and Binance Labs is looking for Web3 gaming projects that have missions of providing real entertainment to the users rather than the ones focusing on giving out more opportunities to ‘earn’.”
Charlie Guillemot, Ultimate Champions co-founder, also shared his thoughts on the possibilities afforded in the Web3 space with this initiative. As Guillemot put it:
“Ultimate Champions’ ambition is to bring Web3 sports gaming to a wider audience with a fun, accessible, and free-to-play experience. We are extremely happy to innovate and expand the Web3 sports gaming ecosystem with Binance Labs.”
In addition, the Ultimate Champions co-founder added that the BNB Chain could be the robust platform upon which his game can flourish.
Alex Odagiu, Investment Director at Binance Labs, also weighed in on the possibilities of an Ultimate Champions and Web3 melting pot. According to Odagiu, Web3 offers massive potential for interactivity among sports clubs, players, and fans. He also highlights Ultimate Champions’ mode of operation regarding fan engagement as a flexible and sustainable mechanism. These include using digital collectibles to facilitate fan interaction, player-focused gameplay, and wallet-free onboarding. In Odagiu’s opinion, all three facets mesh well to make blockchain gaming more accessible to a broader audience of players. “We look forward to working with the Ultimate Champions team to bring greater benefits to gamers of all stripes,” he concludes.
Binance Labs
As Binance’s venture capital arm, Binance Labs invests in novel Web3 initiatives. Binance Labs has investments in over 200 projects across 25 countries between 2018 and the present and has also incubated over 50 Web3 projects.
Binance Labs is the most prominent crypto venture capital by Asset Under Management (AuM) of $7.5 billion as of August 2022. Furthermore, the platform also has a Multiple on Invested Capital (MOIC) of 21.0x.
Ultimate Champions
Ultimate Champions, a free-to-play and cross-league fantasy sports platform has officially licensed digital cards as NFTs. Players can earn rewards that hold long-term value by leveraging their sports knowledge. Furthermore, players have full ownership over any assets earned or purchased in the games.