🏆The Ultimate Guide to March Madness NFTs
Bracketology is upon us, and there is no shortage of options to make your picks counts in the web3 sports world. So lets dive in!
What’s up everyone,
What a wonderful time of the year!
The next few days of college basketball games are some of the most fun and exciting of the entire sports calendar.
And despite the bear market, the world of web3 sports is rolling out March Madness competitions in full force - and we’ve got each one listed here for you to play below.
However, you’ll notice one glaring flaw: there are NO actual NFTs for the tourney.
No Moments.
No Cards.
No Collectibles.
Nothing!
The Perfect March Madness NFT Project
What a shame. Phil and I discussed this issue on this past Monday’s podcast, and basically described our ideal scenario for a March Madness project:
An Open Edition (OE) NFT is minted at the end of EVERY game
The NFT features a highlight from the winning team
The mint is time sensitive (only open for 1-2 hours)
The mint is accessible via QR code that flashes during the broadcast
Collecting is encouraged; there is a special prize for accounts that hold an NFT from each of the 67x games of the tournament
Each mint is FREE or very low cost (say $2-3), to encourage anyone to buy in. This would require a solid L2 with fiat onramp (I may know a few…)
One can dream. And we’ve got an entire year for the powers that be (and hold the IP) to decide if this is something they want to deploy.
Enough complaining - on to the brackets!
We got a full breakdown below of each web3 project hosting a bracket or bracket-themed competition, with extra points to those who crafted something unique and fun to celebrate this time of year.
Featuring:
Bleacher Report // Own The Moment // Rumble Kong League // Knights of Degen // Kraken NFT // NBA Top Shot // BALLEERZZZ
Bleacher Report
The TLDR
Alright this first one is hilarious - Phil and I are listed as “celebrities” in the Watch-2-Earn Group on the official NCAA website. Lol what!
Cost: FREE
Prizing: None (that I know of)
How To Play
Go to the W2E Group on the NCAA Site.
Enter your bracket for this year’s tournament
Try to beat me and Phil D (it won’t be hard lol)
🧊 Own The Madness | OTM
The TLDR
Own The Moment is hosting a Best Ball style tournament, where you basically pick up a FREE entry and select 12 seeds from a random pool of 20.
Cost: FREE
Prizing: Grand prize trip to Vegas / bunch of NFTs
How To Play
Go to the OTM March Madness website.
Open your “pack”, which is 30 seeds from the tournament.
Pick 3x seeds per conferences.
Submit your bracket.
And then join The First Mint’s group and compete against ME!
Rumble Kong League
The TLDR
Rumble Kong League is a fantastic project from early 2021, that is 100% basketball themed. They have been developing an awesome 3-on-3 game, where you’ll need the NFTs to play.
Cost: FREE
Prizing: NFTs / Merch
How To Play
Read all the details here on Twitter.
Join their group on ESPN.
Enter your bracket picks.
⚔️ Knights of Degen
The TLDR
KoD is a sports-focused NFT project and Web3’s home for competitive entertainment. They share many community members with TFM and are quite committed to bridging the gap between web3 sports and the real world.
Cost: FREE
Prizing: Trip to 2024 Final Four / NFTs / Tokens
How To Play
Full details can be found here.
Create an ID and receive 100 DGEN coins.
Use your DGEN coins to enter your bracket
🦑 NFTournament | Kraken NFT
The TLDR
Kraken is the world’s 5th largest crypto exchange, and I guess they have an NFT marketplace now? First time I’ve heard of it! Their MM is mainly just a series of quests you have to complete.
Cost: FREE
Prizing: $50k worth of Blue Chip NFTs
How To Play
First, you have to be a US Citizen (Canada get screwed yet again).
Qualify by signing up for an account (Info here).
Participate in each round of “competitions” through to April
NBA Top Shot
The TLDR
Although TS does not have the rights to the NCAA, they have still found a creative way to have fun with the event - burning! Over the next few weeks, they will award prizes to those who burn the most “alumni” player Moments on Top Shot.
Cost: Burn Moments
Prizing: Playoff Tickets / Packs / Swag / Dapper Balance
How To Play
Read the full details on the latest Top Shot Blog
Burn tons of “alumni” Moments through different phases in March (244x players to pick from)
If you burn at least 100 Top Shot Score of Moments in Round 1, you get a pack!
Community Tournaments
Top Shot team Captains are also organizing their own March Madness tournaments, so check in with them on Discord. Two of them reached out, so here are their links:
Top Shot Cream City (Milwaukee) | Prize: Merch, Giftcards
Top Shot 310 Yacht Club (Clippers) | Prize: Game Tickets, NFTs
🌎 BALLEERZZZ
The TLDR
Our old friends at Ballerz are putting on a show for the big dance.
Cost: Free if you hold a BALLERZ
Prizing: Dapper Credit / NFTs
How To Play
Join the contest on the Sleeper App
Submit your bracket
Must have the BALLERZ role in their discord to claim prizes
And that’s it for this year’s March Madness in the web3 sports world.
Good luck this week, and may all your impossible Cinderella picks come true.
**This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter, podcast, or publication should be considered financial or trading advice of any kind. Please do your own thorough research and make your own trading decisions. This is not advice.”
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