US-licensed Formula One team Haas F1 has collaborated with popular NFT marketplace OpenSea to produce a collection of Haas branded NFT while OpenSea’s logos will be appear on its cars for added visibility and in support of the partnership.
OpenSea will be the “Official NFT Marketplace Partner” of Haas F1 team and will work with the team and external collaborators alike in producing a collection of branded NFT. As one would imagine, the partnership will see the team release limited edition NFT to the popular NFT marketplace.This represents one of the biggest sports NFT tie-ups this year and could potentially merge two very passionate fan groups – racing lovers and NFT enthusiasts.
The initiative is aimed at enhancing fan engagement for the racing team while the NFT marketplaceplans to launch innovative collections with Haas F1 and provide new opportunities for their community of dedicated fans to get closer to the action.The OpenSea logo will also appear on the VF-22 cars, which were designed and constructed by the Haas F1 team to compete in the 2022 Formula One World Championship.
“With a shared vision for enhancing engagement and delivering unique best-in-class Web 3.0 experiences, Haas F1 team and OpenSea will focus on developing incredible utility, that helps fans get closer to the team and bring exciting and differentiated collections to the NFT community”, Haas said in a statement.
Sports partnerships continue to be the fertile ground for crypto firms and collaboration between the crypto industry and the popular racing sport has been gaining traction in the past few years. Several Formula 1 teams have partnered with at least one crypto or NFT company, with such companies offering significant cash sums to get into the sport.
In 2021, Formula One secured a multi-million-dollar crypto sponsorship deal with Crypto.com and in early 2022, Red Bull Racing partnered with crypto exchange Bybit. In October, F1 filed eight trademark applications covering a range of crypto, NFT and Metaverse products and services in the US.
Haas agreed to a deal with OpenSea, after several years without an NFT partner but the announcement seems to have disappointed its fans. “We’ve waited to find the right partner in the NFT space and in OpenSea, we have found exactly that”, the statement said.
The American team is making a concerted effort to improve its financial situation in F1. Although most F1 fans are sympathetic to the financial struggle of the Amercian team but that support did not last long. Haas fans showcased their disappointment in the collaboration with the negative aspects of NFT and the market’s volatility.
The volatility of the NFT market in recent months has seen sales collapsing since the start of 2022. After gaining mainstream popularity in the last few years, NFT became the talk of the town. However, especially with damaging effects on the environment, the public perception of these digital tokens has worsened.
Sports partnerships in Web 3.0, meanwhile, have been a mixed bag, with only a handful of successful ventures. Crypto.com saw its own sports league sponsorship deal hit a snag in August, when it pulled out of a US $495 million sponsorship deal with the European Champions League
