Los Angeles Dodgers to Offer NFT with Physical World Series Ring

The Los Angeles Dodgers, an American professional baseball team with the Major League Baseball (MLB) has announced plans to auction a physical World Series ring as part of a package together with a single-edition non-fungible token (NFT) crypto collectible.

The bundle will also include a rear opportunity to throw out the first pitch at a Dodgers game in their Los Angeles stadium alongside tickets to that game. The auction is expected to open up online on July 12 and will last through July 15, with all proceeds going to the team’s social justice-centric charity called the “Dodgers Foundation.”

The Dodgers are now the first official team offering NFT’s via the Major League’s partnership with Candy Digital, a crypto-collectibles startup. Candy Digital was co-founded by executive chairman of sports merchandise and memorabilia firm Fanatics, Michael Rubin together with entrepreneur and NFT creator, Gary Vaynerchuk and founder and CEO of blockchain financial services firm Galaxy Digital Mike Novogratz. Candy Digital and the MLB announced their partnership in the early stages of June this year.

The Dodgers, who are the reigning champions from the 2020 season, will reportedly also offer a common, open edition NFT during the same in addition to the special-edition bundle during the same time frame. The common, open edition NFT will be priced at a fixed price of $20.20 with all proceeds going to the same charity. The Dodgers’ NFT will also be in the form of a looping video clip showing the World Series 2020 logo transforming into the Dodgers team logo and back.

Candy Digital sold it’s first-ever MLB offering for $70,444 last week. The single-edition NFT which was a video clip of player Lou Gehrig’s famed 1939 “Luckiest Man” speech was auctioned earlier last week which was bought by Tyler Winklevoss, one of the Winklevoss twins and co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway. Proceeds from the auction were reportedly heading straight to charities helping amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

The latest NFT auction is however not the Major League Baseball first as the league has been involved in previous NFT offerings. The MLB briefly had its own NFT-based game called MLB Crypto Baseball (later MLB Champions) before the sports NFT market wave. Topps, an American collectibles company also released digital MLB cards as NFTs through the WAX blockchain this spring this year.

Sports collectibles have become one of the hottest sections of the booming NFT market this year. The emerging-market led by Dapper Labs’ officially licensed NBA Top Shot platform, has recorded more than $700 million in trading volume since launching last fall and has played a major role in NFTs breakout this year.