The tokenization of assets within the world of sport is a trend which is becoming more and more consolidatedIn Argentina, as expected, the wave It started on the football side, with the training rights of professional footballers. The operation is carried out through the Win Investments platform, which reached 96 tokenized players, emerging from 11 different clubs and grouped together for a value of 4.7 million euros.
Now, more recently, The worlds of golf and tennis were added through a startup that allows you to participate in future prizes of athletes from both disciplines and which has former tennis player Mariano Zabaleta as its most visible face.
The startup in question is Slice Token, a company that has been around for just over a year since its launch. It recently received a capital contribution of US$750,000 through an investment round led by the VC fund Newtopia. It also managed to add other sports figures as individual investors, such as Juan “Pico” Monaco and Juan Ignacio Chela, among others.
It already has almost 100 tennis players and 25 golfers from 25 countries who are financing their sports careers through the platform. According to the most recent figures, athletes They have raised about US$300 thousand in tokens contributed by its fans and private investors, in exchange for a remuneration that It is not only economic: In addition to participation in future awards, they are committed to giving their fans the opportunity to be part of their community through exclusive experiences, content and benefits.
Slice Token was officially launched in 2023 to solve a historical problem for athletes at the beginning of their careers: How to fund the high costs of young tennis and golf players’ activities. According to data from the platform itself, at the beginning of their careers these athletes They need to invest around US$50,000 a yearThis is intended for the expenses of the coach, technical equipment and travel for participation in international tournaments, an essential condition for moving up in the rankings.
Athletes: a solution to the historical problem of lack of funding
On this point, Ángel Lombardi, CEO of Slice Token, commented: “By allowing the generation of a digital representation of an asset of the real economy, such as a percentage of the future ‘prize money’ that players give up against the issuance of their tokens, what the technology does in this case is enable a solution to a global problem that has plagued sport for 100 years and which acts as a barrier to entry for players who want to develop professionally, leaving practically 80% of young people with good performance out of the race due to lack of financing.”
The startup’s financial scheme is based on each player gives up to 30% of its future prizes in competitions by issuing a certain amount of tokens, up to a maximum of 20,000.
By purchasing each token, the investor acquires the right to a 0.0015% share of that 30% of the player’s future prizes. And the token can be traded at any time on the secondary marketwith the value determined between buyer and seller.
Through the platform, fans can acquire tokens of their favorite athlete from US$20using digital dollars transferred to your Slice Token wallet from any exchange or acquiring them through other payment methods such as debit card, credit card or Binance Pay.
Using blockchain-based smart contracts, Slice Token is responsible for weekly collect and distribute prize money that players receive after each tournament among all token holders.
In both tennis and golf the value of the prizes for official competitions are public, giving total transparency to the system used by fans of the athletes, who receive weekly dividends for the tokens acquired and can also win through appreciation over time of their tokens, which they can sell within the same platform.
Exclusive experiences as an added value of token use
In addition, fans from more than 60 countries have already participated in the awards in “spices”: exclusive experiences such as a training day with the outstanding Peruvian tennis player Juan Pablo Varillas, a golf clinic with a trip to the course with Tano Goya, a “meet & greet” with Peque Schwartzman, as well as raffles for tickets, equipment, tournament souvenirs and other activities that the athletes generate as added value for the fans who acquire their tokens.
The athletes come from, among other countries, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela in the region and have also crossed the Atlantic, reaching Austria, Croatia, Finland, Italy, India, Romania, Russia, Switzerland and Belarus.
Established athletes such as Colombian PGA Tour golfer Nico Echavarría and Austrian Top 50 ATP tennis player Sebastián Ofner joined the platform, as well as tennis players Tomy Etcheverry, Diego “el peque” Schwartzman, Juan Pablo Varillas and golfer Tano Goya, among others.
Sports tokens: successful experiences
Beyond the cases of already established figures, Slice Token is already fulfilling its purpose by democratizing access to financing for rising sports talents such as Federico Gómez, a right-handed Argentine tennis player, born in Merlo, Province of Buenos Aires, who joined Slice Token in October 2023 and was able to access financing for 40% of its annual budget, With which he was able to cover his travel expenses and participate in tournaments that allowed him climb more than 400 positions in the ATP rankings and be closer to his biggest dream, which is to win the US Open.
Another of the many cases is that of the 19-year-old Belarusian tennis player Evialina Laskevich, who started playing in Minsk, her hometown, at the age of 3 and was already playing professionally at 14. This young promise from her country became number 30 in the ITF junior world ranking, participating in different Grand Slams in the category. Since joining Slice Token she has achieved in just over 6 months Cover 15% of your annual budget and climb more than 300 positions of the ATP ranking.
As an example, Argentine Tomy Etcheverry, who in February of this year reached his best ATP ranking of 27th place and was one of the six Argentine tennis players who represented the country at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, launched its first tokens to the market in 2023 at a value of US$200, which rose to US$400 thanks to his outstanding results in international competitions such as Roland Garros, the Concepción Open in Chile, the Tampere Open in Finland and the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires, among others.
Source: Ambito
