NFTs set to crank up cricket digital collectibles business

Mumbai: An Indian tech platform, Rario, is in the process of launching the world’s first cricket-based digital collectibles platforms, which will enable users to own non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of a verifiable, genuine instance or moment.

Globally, NFTs – a blockchain-enabled technology that proves unique ownership of digital content such as video, photo or audio – is changing the way fans buy sports collectibles.

From leagues like the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) to the biggest football clubs in the world, athletes and sports are joining the bandwagon.


In India, only digital arts have seen NFT-based transactions so far and the sports business has yet to see action in the sale or trading of digital collectibles using NFTs.

Rario will start operations in August.

The startup will be one of the world’s first cricket-based digital collectibles platforms. Each collectible – an image, video or audio – will be tied to a blockchain, effectively giving each NFT a unique and non-hackable certificate of authenticity.

So even if somebody makes a perfect copy of the highlight video, it will instantly be recognisable as fake.

“We are living in a mobile-first world and all our interactions are primarily digital - we play, work, find love, talk, collaborate, buy, sell and help each other online - but fandom is still predominantly offline. Rario aims to change all that,” founder Ankit Wadhwa said.

The platform will not only issue digital collectibles, but also create multiple engagement avenues such as games and marketplace.

The company has already signed Lanka Premier League as a partner and is in advanced stages of negotiation with three more leagues.

It has also signed cricketers Zaheer Khan, Smriti Mandhana, Shefali Verma, Shakib Al Hassan and Faf du Plessis to offer their digital collectibles to fans.

As per global estimates, transactions worth over $2.5 billion are expected in the digital sports collectibles space.

NBA Topshot, an NBA-licenced platform, has already crossed $32 million peak daily trading volume within one year of launch with cards ranging from $9 to $1,000.

Wadhwa said the collectibles on Rario will be available from Rs 50 onwards and there will be various formats and bid and ask models too.

“Currently, we are signing players, leagues and cricket boards. We are trying to create an ecosystem, before making it a global play,” he said.

Also Read: What is NFT, and why it matters in the crypto world