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Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business of Sports talk about some of

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Speaker 1: the more interesting aspects of business of sports. So there's

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Speaker 1: all kinds of cool questions. So this is a fun

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Speaker 1: topic to the country is finally getting the memo about

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Speaker 1: how amazing the sport is. I think the sky's a

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Speaker 1: limit for MLS. We're spending more and more of our

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Speaker 1: time in a digital world, and it's also becoming a

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Speaker 1: really powerful place for commerce. It is so nice to

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Speaker 1: be back and to be able to have fans back

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Speaker 1: in the building. So despite the chaotic schedule, and this

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Speaker 1: is why we do what we do. When you get

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Speaker 1: into the playoffs, there's nothing better at the player, in

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Speaker 1: the excitement, and it's also for the organization sponsors involved.

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is the

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business of Sports Show. We explored big money issues

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Speaker 1: in the world of sports at Michael barn I'm Scarlett

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Speaker 1: Poo and I'm Mike Lynch. Coming up today, we are

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Speaker 1: going next Gen. We're catching up with Candy Digital CEO

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Speaker 1: Scott Lawn. His company has teamed up with Major League Baseball,

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Speaker 1: operating the league's official n f T and digital collectible

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Speaker 1: ecosystem that is straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of

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Speaker 1: Sports Show. But first, let's take a look at some

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Speaker 1: of the top stories over the weekend. We've got a

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Speaker 1: bunch of them. I'm gonna start. You know why, I

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Speaker 1: know this is gonna work about Activision because my son,

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Speaker 1: my seventeen year old son, said, Dad, do you hear

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Speaker 1: about Activision? It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, see I I

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Speaker 1: kind of do it for a living too. Son. It's like, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: call of Duty. Let me show you how to play

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Speaker 1: Call of Duties. And that's when I had to stop

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Speaker 1: right there. But Microsoft has agreed to by Activision Blizzard

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Speaker 1: for a share. Uh and when you add it up,

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Speaker 1: that's about sixty eight point seven billion dollars Scarlett. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and this is really about Microsoft making a bid to

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Speaker 1: stake its claim in the metaverse. Video games is obviously

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Speaker 1: the way to get there, and by buying Activision, Microsoft

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Speaker 1: becomes the world's third biggest gaming company after a ten

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Speaker 1: Cent and after Sony. In fact, Sony shares tumbled after

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Speaker 1: this news. So this is about Microsoft putting its name

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Speaker 1: up there. I mean, you know, Facebook, the company that

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Speaker 1: has now become known as Meta clearly wanted to push

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Speaker 1: its first mover advantage. But this is Microsoft saying hold on,

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Speaker 1: we've got something specific here and we're going to do

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Speaker 1: it through gaming, you know, another business and other industry

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Speaker 1: that the residue of of this pandemic was positive for them.

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Speaker 1: Last year, video game releases were up sixty four. Obviously

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Speaker 1: a lot of people sitting around looking for things to

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Speaker 1: do accelerated the gaming business. I can give you one example.

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Speaker 1: I got a new iPad and I gave my old

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Speaker 1: iPad to my five year old granddaughter and she said, Grandpa,

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Speaker 1: does it have candy crush on it? That's the only thing.

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Speaker 1: And then you go, candy crush is part of this

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Speaker 1: whole deal. See, I thought you year old iPad was

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Speaker 1: that old notebook you got with that spiral that still

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Speaker 1: got right here. It's right in front you right now.

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Speaker 1: But it's really gonna be interesting to see what this

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Speaker 1: does for um, the Overwatch League, the Call of Duty League,

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Speaker 1: all of e sports as well. Yeah. I got the

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Speaker 1: names on their Warcraft Diablo there. There are a lot

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Speaker 1: of names in there that Activision uh Blizzard in their

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Speaker 1: in their stable. By the way, this isn't going to

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Speaker 1: happen like oh next week, the transaction is expected to

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Speaker 1: close in fiscal year three and a lot of regulators

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Speaker 1: need to okay this too, exactly, so they got to

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Speaker 1: sign off on it. Uh, let's move on now to

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Speaker 1: Scott Boris and uh the super agent, Yes, super agent

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Speaker 1: Scott Boris is like, show me the money. Scott Boars

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Speaker 1: a free agent shortstop, Carlos Carea you've heard of him,

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Speaker 1: has higher Scott Boris to represent them Scarling And this

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Speaker 1: is interesting because we know that there's no business being

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Speaker 1: done in Major League Baseball at the moment. So this

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Speaker 1: is about Carlos Carrera setting things up for and uh,

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Speaker 1: negotiations can begin once the work stoppage has ended. But um,

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Speaker 1: it's it's going to be interesting because obviously, wherever he

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Speaker 1: ends up, Kari is going to get top dollar because

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Speaker 1: that is what Scott bors is known for. There's no

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Speaker 1: other method for Scott Boris, it's the top dollar or

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Speaker 1: nothing at all. We thought a few years ago when

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Speaker 1: he got Bryce Harper and Piper got three thirty million

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Speaker 1: dollars in the Phillies that would be at well. Fernando

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Speaker 1: Tartis gets three forty lind Or gets three forty one

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Speaker 1: from the Mets, Mike Trulk gets three sixty from the

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Speaker 1: Angel Wookie Betts gets three hundred sixty five million from

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Speaker 1: the Dodgers, So you can expect Carlos Carrera to top

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Speaker 1: a deal total package of more than three hundred and

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Speaker 1: sixty five million dollars. My goodness is and he has

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Speaker 1: been Scott has been doing the Scott boards. I guess

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Speaker 1: I should call him Mr Scott. Boys, you make all

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Speaker 1: this money. He's been doing this for years. He knows

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Speaker 1: what the heck he's doing. What I wonder about now

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Speaker 1: is we're heading into that work stoppage. How much leverage

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Speaker 1: does he have? Scarlett. Yeah, it's a good question. Um,

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Speaker 1: I it's it's it's a very good question. I don't

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Speaker 1: know how things are going to play out in terms

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Speaker 1: of timing, but Scott Borris, with his wealth of experience,

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Speaker 1: with his years of doing this, Um, we'll position Carlos

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Speaker 1: the right way. I think. By the way, if any

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Speaker 1: of our listeners out there knows Scott, um convince him

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Speaker 1: to come on and talk to us and explain, you know,

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Speaker 1: what it is he does, how he does what he does.

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Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from him. Have them represent us.

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Speaker 1: Let's see what happens. Forget about that. I know I'm

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Speaker 1: thinking too small right, walk right into the Boss's office

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Speaker 1: with all three of them, asked the big Boss four

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Speaker 1: rais you know where you can always find him. He's

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Speaker 1: always standing behind the backstop at the Angels games. Really

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Speaker 1: behind the catcher is this little wired fence there, and

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Speaker 1: Scott Boris is always sitting there watching the game. That's

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Speaker 1: his own little private It's almost like a little like

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Speaker 1: a dugout of his own. And he's always there. You

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Speaker 1: can see him, never miss him. How many games do

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Speaker 1: you think he watches? It probably goes to all the

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Speaker 1: Angels games, you know, let's eighty one home games. He

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Speaker 1: probably goes to. I've never seen an Angel game where

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Speaker 1: he wasn't behind the behind home play sitting there. Next

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Speaker 1: story is on to Lynchy Maverick Carter, and this is

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Speaker 1: something that is near and dear to us. Their it

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Speaker 1: is Maverick Carter. It was named to the board of

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Speaker 1: Directors of the Red Sox Foundation, which is a charitable

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Speaker 1: arm of the Femiway Sports Group, a group that Maverick

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Speaker 1: Carter and Lebron James have been part of since two

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Speaker 1: thousand ten, and this past year they elevated a notch.

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Speaker 1: Maverick and Lebron James became part owners of the Fenway

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Speaker 1: Sports Group, which is the fourth largest sports group in

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Speaker 1: the planet, valued in March of somewhere just south of

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Speaker 1: seven billion dollars. Maverick Carter has been a number He's

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Speaker 1: on a number of charitable boards, and his big thing

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Speaker 1: with charity has just helped people. Empowerment is the keyword

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Speaker 1: that drives him. And I can't think of a better

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Speaker 1: guy to be on this board here. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of work to be done in every single city around

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Speaker 1: this country. Me and Boston is no exception. And I

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Speaker 1: know the Red Sox. I was over at Fenway Park

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Speaker 1: last night and they're they're they're really excited about this announcement.

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Speaker 1: If there's a power ranking in sports, his arrownext one,

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Speaker 1: his name would go straight up. As long as Lebron's playing,

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Speaker 1: I don't believe he can own an NBA team, but

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Speaker 1: Maverick Carter and Lebron James, probably with the help of

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Speaker 1: the Fenway Sports Group, will own an NBA franchise very

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Speaker 1: shortly after Lebron James retires. Can you imagine that? By

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Speaker 1: the way, obviously you have Michael Jordan, and he's also

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Speaker 1: an ownership. Obviously, did you get Lebron James in the mix,

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Speaker 1: you get Maverick Carter in the mix, it would change

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Speaker 1: even more the face of the NBA and how it's run. Well.

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Speaker 1: It would be the be the only owner that you

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Speaker 1: couldn't beat in the game of one on one. If

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Speaker 1: you were a player on the team, you could beat

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Speaker 1: Steve Bond. If you play for the Clippers, you're gonna

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Speaker 1: beat Steve Bomber and one on one you beat him

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Speaker 1: in the game or horse. But when Lebron James is

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Speaker 1: owning the team, you've got zero chans asked him playing

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Speaker 1: with one hand behind. Today we are digging into the

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Speaker 1: world of sports collectibles. Not those dusty old baseball cards. Uh,

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Speaker 1: We're talking about the next generation digital assets. We're joined

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Speaker 1: by Candy Digital CEO Scott Law. Candy Digital is Major

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Speaker 1: League Baseball and the Race Team Alliance's official partner for

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Speaker 1: n f T s and collectible Scott, Welcome to the show.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much, really happy to be here. Okay, so

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Speaker 1: here I go, old man, Bar. I have to be honest.

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Speaker 1: I I when I wrote the original promo for this show,

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Speaker 1: my first line in there was you better get with

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Speaker 1: the times if you don't know what an n f

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Speaker 1: T is. Uh, that's me. So what makes this so

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Speaker 1: big with n f T s. So, n f t

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Speaker 1: s have been around for quite a while, actually sort

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Speaker 1: of seen was was regarded as kind of the first

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Speaker 1: n f T s that we're in the marketplace, But

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Speaker 1: the technology and the market for collectibles that are digital

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Speaker 1: only had largely been limited to the crypto community. And

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Speaker 1: so what changed in one was I would say two

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Speaker 1: or three things. One, a tremendous explosion in the issuance

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Speaker 1: and volume of non fungible tokens, to the crossover from

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Speaker 1: the crypto community into the mainstream community. And then three,

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Speaker 1: I would say, the strategic shift of all of the

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Speaker 1: content and uh, I p owners to really look at

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Speaker 1: this technology and say, hey, how does this change the

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Speaker 1: game for us in terms of creating product and connecting

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Speaker 1: with our customers. How did you hook up with Major

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Speaker 1: League Baseball? Because your distinction here is that you're the

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Speaker 1: partner of MLB and the Race Team Alliance, so you

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Speaker 1: have access to authentic collectibles. How did partnership come about?

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Speaker 1: So that's really the way that we've built the business.

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Speaker 1: UM Candy Digital was formed as a joint venture between

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Speaker 1: Fanatics and Galaxy Digital, so kind of the premier merchant

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Speaker 1: bank in the blockchain and cryptospace Galaxy Digital exactly Mike's

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Speaker 1: my old business partner, uh and so uh and we

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Speaker 1: teamed up with Michael Reubin and Fanatics, leading e commerce

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Speaker 1: platform and sports. And the thesis here was to say,

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Speaker 1: how do we take the technology of blockchain distributed ledger,

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Speaker 1: which largely is in the cryptocurrency world and the centralized

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Speaker 1: finance world, and how do we bring it out into

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Speaker 1: mass market. UM best way to do that is through

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Speaker 1: content and looking at the various content verticals, whether it's art, music, sports, etcetera.

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Speaker 1: Sports was the one we leaned into. Billions of global fans,

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Speaker 1: passionate fan communities, and a sports collectibles business, not just

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Speaker 1: the dusty baseball cards, but sports memorabili and things like

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Speaker 1: that that's obviously decades old and had kind of been

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Speaker 1: turbo charged during the lockdown as people went up into

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Speaker 1: their attics and and sort of saw what they had.

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Speaker 1: And so it really thought about how how do you

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Speaker 1: evolve the idea of a collectible, whether it's a trading card,

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Speaker 1: whether it's a signed football, whether it's a ticket stub

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Speaker 1: and how do you utilize the technology that's provided by

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Speaker 1: an n f T And an n f T is

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Speaker 1: essentially just a unique ownership of a digital asset that's

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Speaker 1: authenticated and bring that out to folks in a way

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Speaker 1: that's collectible, meaningful and can change over time. Um, we

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Speaker 1: told that story, We looked at, you know, where we

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Speaker 1: saw the marketplace was going, and you know, we reached

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Speaker 1: out to the folks at Major League Baseball. UM, probably

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Speaker 1: one of the most technologically forward of the league's in

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Speaker 1: terms of what they've done in the media side, and

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Speaker 1: also had done some early stuff in blockchain and really

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Speaker 1: pitched the idea of building a partnership together around this technology.

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Speaker 1: And that was that was really the advent of our

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Speaker 1: deal with them and kind of the kickoff to Candy's

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Speaker 1: business early in So Scott, this is Mike up in Boston.

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Speaker 1: Major League Baseball, more than any other sport, has a

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Speaker 1: rich history of collectibles, baseball cards, autographed baseballs, bats, uniforms.

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Speaker 1: As you said, ticket stubbs. What is the next generation

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Speaker 1: looking for in terms of collectibles with th n f

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Speaker 1: T s. Yeah, So, so we really rely on that

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Speaker 1: idea of a collectible, something that scares, something that's valuable,

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Speaker 1: something that represents, you know, an important moment or an

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Speaker 1: important player, and we try to marry it with the

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Speaker 1: new technology so that you know, the first product that

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Speaker 1: Candy put out was actually a commemorative n f T

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Speaker 1: of the famous Luke Garris Garret Luckiest Man speech. And

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Speaker 1: you know there's a little bit of poetry there. You

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Speaker 1: take one of the one of the key moments in

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Speaker 1: baseball and i'd say even American history, and you marry

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Speaker 1: it with new technology on the blockchain. And so we

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Speaker 1: created a digital bust of lou We minted that that

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Speaker 1: famous speech. Um. We did that as a one of

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Speaker 1: one auction, uh and actually raised a bunch of money

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Speaker 1: for als charities. So you know, proved that, um, there's

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Speaker 1: a there's a way to have a positive impact through

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Speaker 1: these products as well. Um. But you know that was

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Speaker 1: kind of our introduction to the space. As we've moved

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Speaker 1: forward and launched a series of products. Really what we're

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Speaker 1: doing is we're revolving some of those traditional collectibles. So

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Speaker 1: if you think about the trading card, we think of

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Speaker 1: trading card one point, oh as the cardboard we think

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Speaker 1: of trading card two point oh as the digital picture

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Speaker 1: of the cardboard, and we think about trading card three

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Speaker 1: point oh is what candies creating. And so what we're

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Speaker 1: doing is we're taking all of the digital assets that

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Speaker 1: MLB has, whether those are photographs, video images, motion graphics, sound,

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Speaker 1: digital signatures, and creating a digital product that combines that

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Speaker 1: in the new and exciting way, and then layering on

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Speaker 1: top of that utility, the gamification and so the utility

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Speaker 1: element of it are dynamic statistics. So for folks who

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Speaker 1: are going to be collecting our next series of cards

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Speaker 1: in two, if you have the Fernando Tatis card, every

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Speaker 1: time you pull up your n F t UH you'll

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Speaker 1: see his updated batting average, home runs, bases, stolen, things

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Speaker 1: like that. And then as you're as a collector, as

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Speaker 1: you build your collection, you can unlock interesting rewards, which

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Speaker 1: might be tickets to the game, it might be a

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Speaker 1: meet and greet, it may be a physical signed object.

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Speaker 1: And so we really think about this evolution of collectibles

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Speaker 1: as not just digital only, but connecting back to the

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Speaker 1: physical side of the business as well as the experiential side.

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Speaker 1: Kind of explained a lot there because with the n

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Speaker 1: f T it's more than just the likeness. You can

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Speaker 1: get special bonus prizes with this that I was not

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Speaker 1: aware of that with the n f T s. Yeah, absolutely,

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Speaker 1: that's not not not all n f T s have

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Speaker 1: that baked in. But you know, our our view here

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Speaker 1: is we're creating products that we want to be have

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Speaker 1: to be accessible and interested to the everyday fan. And

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Speaker 1: so crossing that digital, physical, and experiential divide is kind

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Speaker 1: of core a candy strategy. And I gotta bring up

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Speaker 1: a quote that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban recently made,

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Speaker 1: and he said the fact that you can take a

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Speaker 1: digital file, audio, video, picture, whatever and not only meant

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Speaker 1: it to sell it, but also attached royalties to it.

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Speaker 1: And when he said then, I'm like, wow, he made

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Speaker 1: perfect sense to an old guy like me. But we

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Speaker 1: kind of touched on it a little earlier. Can you

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Speaker 1: expand more on Mark Cuban's comment? Yeah, I think what

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Speaker 1: Mark is talking about is both from the creator side

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Speaker 1: as well as from the licensor side. And so if

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Speaker 1: you think about, you know, kind of dialing it back

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Speaker 1: the promise of you know what we call web three

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Speaker 1: and blockchain technology. Uh, if you're a creator of an asset.

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Speaker 1: Let's just say you're an artist. You you paint your painting,

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Speaker 1: you sell it, hopefully you get a good price for it,

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Speaker 1: and then you know thirty years later it's worth a

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Speaker 1: million dollars, and that artist doesn't see any of that

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Speaker 1: along the way every time it trades hands. When you

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Speaker 1: move into the world of digital assets, in blockchain UH blockchain,

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Speaker 1: n f p s are minted with what's called a

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Speaker 1: smart contract, and in that smart contract there's a royalty structure,

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Speaker 1: And generally speaking, the way the royalty structure works is

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Speaker 1: that every time that asset trades hands, there's a royalty

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Speaker 1: that flows back to the creator or to the licenser.

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Speaker 1: So now, as a digital artist, not only are you

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Speaker 1: selling your your digital art for a hundred dollars or

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Speaker 1: a thousand dollars, but every time that trades and changes

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Speaker 1: hands over time, you're getting a bit of that royalty

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Speaker 1: as the price appreciates, and so it really puts a

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Speaker 1: tremendous amount of power sort of back in the hands

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Speaker 1: of creators and i P owners. So, with our partnership

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Speaker 1: with Major League Baseball, every time we sell an n

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Speaker 1: f t UM, we share in the royalties because we

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Speaker 1: use their marks, and we used the name and image

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Speaker 1: and likeness of the players through the Players Association. But

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Speaker 1: then as those assets change hands over time, there's a

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Speaker 1: royalty stream there in preportuity as well. So it's really

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Speaker 1: an exciting business model for creators and licensors. What about

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Speaker 1: the future professional athletes? The college athletes? Are they creators?

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Speaker 1: Are they i P owners here? Absolutely? So, UM yeah.

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Speaker 1: Obviously there was a significant change last year in the

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Speaker 1: n I L laws. Candy was really the first company

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Speaker 1: to put out a project focused on college student athletes.

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Speaker 1: We call it our Sweet Futures product line UM and

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Speaker 1: the first iteration of that was we worked with twenty

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Speaker 1: two of the top college football players UM and and

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Speaker 1: the thesis around that was really creating their first collectible.

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Speaker 1: This was their first trading card. But it wasn't a

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Speaker 1: physical card. It's a digital card. And so, you know,

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Speaker 1: back to what we chatted about a little bit earlier,

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Speaker 1: we created three different versions of that. One of them

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Speaker 1: was just a digital collectible, one of them was one

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Speaker 1: that had a physical item associated with it, and one

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Speaker 1: of it was an auction that included a video chat

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Speaker 1: with the player. So part of the excitement of this

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Speaker 1: space is not just a new series of collectibles, but

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Speaker 1: it's actually ways to connect the athletes directly with their fans,

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Speaker 1: whether it's sort of one to one or through information

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Speaker 1: or conversation. Who makes up your your client lists? Are

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Speaker 1: they investors? Are they collectors? Are the curiosity seekers? Are

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Speaker 1: they cryptomaniacs? Who are they? All of the above? I

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Speaker 1: think you must have read our pitch deck. Now we

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Speaker 1: are our our community kind of first and foremost lives

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Speaker 1: in the world of Discord. You know, Discord has kind

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Speaker 1: of become the online space, the online chat room for

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Speaker 1: folks who are interested in digital asset product projects. And

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Speaker 1: you know, we have a pretty broad list of of

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Speaker 1: folks who are interested. We have folks who are traditional

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Speaker 1: sports fans, traditional baseball fans, collectors of physical memorabilia who

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Speaker 1: have kind of will oaken up to this new space,

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Speaker 1: um and and are involved. I had a great conversation

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Speaker 1: with one of them, who had been a sixty year

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Speaker 1: old collector, had a monster collection. Uh. He focused on

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Speaker 1: some of the earliest baseball cards, the tobacco cards, the

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Speaker 1: Honus Wagners of the world. He said, you know, if

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Speaker 1: I could take a time machine and go back a

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Speaker 1: hundred years, knowing what I know now and have collected

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Speaker 1: all those you know, I would have done very well

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Speaker 1: for myself. And I see n f KEYS as basically

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Speaker 1: being at the beginning of that journey, and so he's

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Speaker 1: excited about that space. Um, we have crypto native folks

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Speaker 1: who you know, love blockchain, love the idea of decentralized ownership,

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Speaker 1: and love baseball. They're super excited. We're giving them two

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Speaker 1: things they love and bringing them together. And then we

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Speaker 1: have folks who are curious. Um, you know, part of

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Speaker 1: Candy's thesis is you don't need to know anything about

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Speaker 1: blockchain or have a digital wallet or own any bitcoint.

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Speaker 1: You got to show up with an email and a

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Speaker 1: credit card and you can own your first digital asset.

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Speaker 1: And so a large percentage of our customers who are

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Speaker 1: are folks who are coming into this space and owning

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Speaker 1: their first n f T and their first digital outset. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, of of what will hopefully be a long journey. Scott, Okay,

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Speaker 1: now this is what I want to make a bundle

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Speaker 1: of money here. So Lynchy, Scarlett and I and Uh,

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Speaker 1: We're gonna do an n f T and it's going

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Speaker 1: to be the one where I'm in the Baby Snooks costume.

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Speaker 1: So I'm in the Baby Snooks costume, and we take

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Speaker 1: this shot and we license it. And then someone says,

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Speaker 1: you get the Baby Schnooks one with bar and all

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Speaker 1: the other stuff. And the guy said, yeah, I listen,

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Speaker 1: I copied it from here and there. Well, that's a

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Speaker 1: no no because it's licensed. How do you crack down

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Speaker 1: on people who are trying to scam the system. It's

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Speaker 1: definitely something that we, uh, you know, think about and

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Speaker 1: pay attention to. UM. One of the beauties of this

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Speaker 1: space is that creating an n f T is really easy.

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Speaker 1: You could take that photo, you could mint it as

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Speaker 1: an n f T, you could put it up for sale,

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Speaker 1: uh and and make it available. The challenge, as you

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Speaker 1: point out, is someone could take that same picture, make

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Speaker 1: a j a copy of it and put it up

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Speaker 1: as well. And so you know what what has happened

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Speaker 1: in the community, and we police it in our partners

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Speaker 1: police it is if there is a product out there

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Speaker 1: that's unofficial, uh, you know, not licensed, a copycat, etcetera.

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Speaker 1: Will reach out to the platform that's posting it, or

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Speaker 1: we'll reach out to the place where it's made available

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Speaker 1: for sale. In generally speaking, they're going to bring that down.

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Speaker 1: That's not unlike uh, you know, making copycats of of

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Speaker 1: T shirts or hats or anything else. This just happens

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Speaker 1: to be digital rather than physical and frankly much easier

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Speaker 1: to track down. So I like what you said about

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Speaker 1: how creating the n f T is simple. Let's say

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Speaker 1: there is massive demand for bar Lynchy and my n

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Speaker 1: f T, and we decided to do a couple of them,

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Speaker 1: and there's still so much demand that people are buying

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Speaker 1: and selling their basically trading this n f T on

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Speaker 1: your platform in your secondary marketplace. I know that when

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Speaker 1: you were at Fortress Investment Group you were the CEO

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Speaker 1: of the liquid markets. UM, that part of the business.

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Speaker 1: How do you ensure there's liquidity? How do you ensure

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Speaker 1: that there are enough buyers and sellers matching up and

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Speaker 1: there isn't an imbalance there? Yeah, that's a great question.

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Speaker 1: I mean, certainly give with my background and financial services,

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Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time thinking about, you know,

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Speaker 1: how marketplaces develop. Um. The interesting thing about n f

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Speaker 1: T s is because they are non fungible, it's a

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Speaker 1: different liquidity profile than something that's fungible, right, Bitcoin and

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Speaker 1: the theory um are fungible assets dollars or fungible assets,

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Speaker 1: and so liquidity there is important. These are n f

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Speaker 1: t s are unique assets, so there isn't necessarily the

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Speaker 1: idea of a two sided market. They're available for sale

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Speaker 1: and they're available. You know, people will pay what they

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Speaker 1: think they are worth. And so our job as a

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Speaker 1: marketplace provider is to provide information, provide transaction services, and

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Speaker 1: make sure that the pipes run smoothly. But ultimately it's

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Speaker 1: the buyers and sellers who are going to decide whether

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Speaker 1: something will trade or not trade and at what price. Scott,

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Speaker 1: this might be a loaded question. What did the pandemic

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Speaker 1: do for the collectibles business? Uh? It turbo charged it. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, I think as people got their heads around

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Speaker 1: the idea that they were going to be locked down

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Speaker 1: for a while. Uh, you found a lot of folks

428
00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:16,199
Speaker 1: who made their way up to the attic or or

429
00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:19,080
Speaker 1: down to the basement, dusted off what they had, took

430
00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:21,679
Speaker 1: their cards out of boxes. Uh, you know, opened up

431
00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:24,920
Speaker 1: the internet and said, hey, holy cow, Uh, there's I've

432
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:27,439
Speaker 1: got something here that is actually worth something, you know,

433
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:30,600
Speaker 1: quite a bit more than I may have thought. And so, um,

434
00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:34,399
Speaker 1: there was an explosion in physical collectibles, uh, you know,

435
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:39,080
Speaker 1: particularly with the grading companies. The backlogs to get a

436
00:23:39,119 --> 00:23:43,959
Speaker 1: physical baseball card graded, uh you know went from weeks

437
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:47,439
Speaker 1: to months to almost a year. Um. And that was

438
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 1: one of the things, frankly, that drove more people to

439
00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 1: look into digital collectibles. They kind of caught that bug again.

440
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:56,720
Speaker 1: They you know folks my age, uh, you know, in

441
00:23:56,760 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 1: their in their forties and fifties who were active as kids,

442
00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:01,440
Speaker 1: who said, hey, wait a second, I used to love

443
00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:04,280
Speaker 1: doing that, and you know, now there's this new robust

444
00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:07,359
Speaker 1: marketplace across physical and digital. It kind of brought the

445
00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:09,879
Speaker 1: excitement and that sort of childhood activity back for a

446
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:14,560
Speaker 1: lot of folks. Okay, bar has a baseball card that

447
00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:16,440
Speaker 1: he tucked away in a book a long time ago

448
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:18,919
Speaker 1: that his father throughout let's just say, for some reason,

449
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:22,000
Speaker 1: he managed to find that is there a relationship between

450
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:25,600
Speaker 1: the price of that card, that physical card, and these

451
00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:28,919
Speaker 1: digital assets? I mean, what does that relationship look like?

452
00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:31,240
Speaker 1: And how do you see that playing out? Yeah, it's

453
00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:34,520
Speaker 1: a great question. The answer is not yet, but certainly

454
00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:38,840
Speaker 1: as we think about uh you know, creating digital assets

455
00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:41,719
Speaker 1: we we are working with Major League Baseball to kind

456
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:45,199
Speaker 1: of look back historically and you know, highlights some of

457
00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:47,960
Speaker 1: the most important players in the game. Some of those

458
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:51,800
Speaker 1: will be brand new digital collectibles based on those players.

459
00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:54,760
Speaker 1: But there's also an opportunity to take some of those

460
00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:58,359
Speaker 1: physical collectibles and create a digital version of those. But

461
00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:00,600
Speaker 1: that's uh, you know, that's on the road, not not

462
00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:03,320
Speaker 1: available quite yet. I'm still man a sect that my

463
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:06,280
Speaker 1: dad throughout my bobby or hockey cards, a hockey card.

464
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:12,000
Speaker 1: Oh man that and see the karma is you know what?

465
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:15,199
Speaker 1: Because I always tease Lynchy about his story that he

466
00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:18,240
Speaker 1: told about his dad throwing out the baseball cards. I

467
00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:21,440
Speaker 1: didn't share that story yet and then I just recently

468
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:24,000
Speaker 1: shared it and I'm like, okay, here it comes. It's

469
00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:27,240
Speaker 1: like it I agree, I agree. I deserve every bit

470
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:29,359
Speaker 1: of this. So for me, it was comic books. I

471
00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:32,399
Speaker 1: think we all have those. We certainly do. What do

472
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:35,120
Speaker 1: the clients want? Basically, they want to return an investment.

473
00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:38,040
Speaker 1: They want the pure joy of just owning something that's

474
00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 1: that's there, So that's that's part of something dear to them. Yeah,

475
00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:44,880
Speaker 1: it's a little bit of both. There's no question that

476
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:49,480
Speaker 1: the collector community is interested in getting things that have

477
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:52,560
Speaker 1: rarity structures and you know that they think are gonna

478
00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 1: potentially appreciate over time. You know the same way people

479
00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:58,120
Speaker 1: collect baseball cards or signatures and things like that. So

480
00:25:58,359 --> 00:26:01,840
Speaker 1: you know that that extends to the digital space. Um.

481
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:04,400
Speaker 1: The other side of it is people who just love

482
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:08,800
Speaker 1: the kind of joy and experience of owning something new

483
00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:12,720
Speaker 1: and having something that ties to you know, the stories

484
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:16,159
Speaker 1: that they follow, whether that's the sport or the team

485
00:26:16,359 --> 00:26:19,800
Speaker 1: or the player. Collection is really about identity, right, you know,

486
00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:22,080
Speaker 1: why why do I collect baseball cards or why do

487
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:25,679
Speaker 1: I have assigned jerseys? Because I'm telling my story about

488
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:27,520
Speaker 1: the sport that I love or the game that I

489
00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:29,159
Speaker 1: was at with my dad, or the player that I

490
00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 1: got a chance to meet her that I idolized. And

491
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:33,959
Speaker 1: so you know, some of some of our customers are

492
00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:36,200
Speaker 1: really looking for, OK, how do these digital assets helped

493
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:38,440
Speaker 1: me tell that story in a new and interesting way.

494
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,359
Speaker 1: And if you knew that the n f T business

495
00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 1: wasn't serious, it definitely is because T twelve is now

496
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:49,480
Speaker 1: getting into it. Tom Brady's n f T startup. He

497
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:53,240
Speaker 1: just got a hundred seventy million dollars in Silicon Valley funding.

498
00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:57,840
Speaker 1: It shows Scott that this is going to be here

499
00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:01,960
Speaker 1: the stay. This isn't some fat absolutely um. You know,

500
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:04,840
Speaker 1: the amount of activity not just in n f T

501
00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:09,320
Speaker 1: creation and trading last year, but in investment dollars global

502
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:13,800
Speaker 1: investment dollars from the VC community, UH is really significant. So,

503
00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:17,240
Speaker 1: you know, I think people ask how big is this business?

504
00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:19,920
Speaker 1: And it's hard to put a finger on because it's

505
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:22,320
Speaker 1: a it's a brand new industry. But if you say

506
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:25,000
Speaker 1: what's the market cap of culture? That's kind of a

507
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:27,959
Speaker 1: cheeky way to say. You know that the idea of

508
00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:32,680
Speaker 1: n f T s becoming pervasive across sports, across art,

509
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:35,840
Speaker 1: across music, across culture. Um, that's where we see the

510
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:38,560
Speaker 1: world going. And it's really exciting. But if the pandemic

511
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:42,159
Speaker 1: turbo charge sports collectibles and the industry there, do worry

512
00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:46,520
Speaker 1: that demand will start plateau ng or even tapering off

513
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 1: when we get to a more manageable stage of the pandemic.

514
00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:51,919
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I I think the pandemic was

515
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:57,200
Speaker 1: about people rediscovering physical collectibles. What's happening in digital collectibles

516
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:02,439
Speaker 1: is a much bigger change. As people start to understand,

517
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 1: you know what what what our blockchain assets? Um, you know,

518
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:09,359
Speaker 1: what what does it mean to have a unique ownership

519
00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:11,960
Speaker 1: of a digital asset? And how does that not just

520
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,280
Speaker 1: function as a collectible, but function as a access token

521
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,320
Speaker 1: or utility token. So you know, if you collect, you know,

522
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:21,280
Speaker 1: one of our candy collectibles, it isn't just going to

523
00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:23,720
Speaker 1: look great on your phone or your computer. It may

524
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:25,960
Speaker 1: be that when you go to the stadium to watch

525
00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:28,879
Speaker 1: the game, you get in the unique opportunity because you're

526
00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:32,960
Speaker 1: an owner of you know, of the mets Um Stadium

527
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:37,000
Speaker 1: series collectible, or at the beginning of the season, you

528
00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:39,720
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to you know, buy a new n

529
00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:41,560
Speaker 1: F T or or win a new n F T

530
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:44,760
Speaker 1: because you've collected a certain number of players on a

531
00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:47,719
Speaker 1: particular team. And So I think what people are excited

532
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:50,160
Speaker 1: about is the fact that this space isn't going to

533
00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:52,760
Speaker 1: go away. The technology is really new and it's just

534
00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:55,280
Speaker 1: going to become more and more interesting over time. So

535
00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:57,440
Speaker 1: if I got my hands on the Mickey Mantle N

536
00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:01,200
Speaker 1: two Rookie card which solvers if a five point two million,

537
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:03,800
Speaker 1: and I took a picture of it with my phone,

538
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:06,560
Speaker 1: am I considered having a digital version of that card

539
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:09,320
Speaker 1: you absolutely have a digital version, and you could. You

540
00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:11,720
Speaker 1: could take a hundred pictures and make a thousand copies

541
00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:16,240
Speaker 1: of them, but you don't have unique ownership of that image.

542
00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:18,360
Speaker 1: You just have a copy of it. Same way if

543
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:19,800
Speaker 1: you go to the louver and you take a picture

544
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:21,640
Speaker 1: of the Mona Lisa, you've got a picture of the

545
00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:24,080
Speaker 1: Mona Lisa. You don't own the Mona Lisa. And so

546
00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:27,600
Speaker 1: what's what's unique about n f T s is if

547
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:30,760
Speaker 1: you had turned that image and if it was officially

548
00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:35,280
Speaker 1: licensed by Major League Baseball and by Mickey Mantles, the state, um,

549
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:38,560
Speaker 1: if you turn that into a unique n f T,

550
00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:43,240
Speaker 1: then you have verifiable ownership of that image. So that's

551
00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:46,040
Speaker 1: the difference between a digital copy and the fact the

552
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 1: blockchain publicly will recognize and is verifiable that you're the

553
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:54,360
Speaker 1: owner of that image. Candy Digital, CEO of Scott Lawin,

554
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:57,080
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us. Their absolutely have

555
00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:00,800
Speaker 1: a great day. Appreciate it. Scott Lawin, he is really

556
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:04,719
Speaker 1: a very interesting man and listening to how he is

557
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 1: bringing the n f T business to the forefront. Yeah,

558
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:11,760
Speaker 1: he explained it really well. I'm not sure I buy

559
00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 1: it completely yet in terms of I don't know if

560
00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:16,040
Speaker 1: I see the utility or the value in having an

561
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:19,800
Speaker 1: authenticated version of the picture of you Lynch and me

562
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:23,440
Speaker 1: versus a picture of it on my iPhone, which I

563
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:26,160
Speaker 1: think is good enough. Yeah, I agree. I thought I

564
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:28,800
Speaker 1: might struggle during this interview here, and it really flowed

565
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:31,240
Speaker 1: very well. And I think that's thanks to Scott, who

566
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:34,840
Speaker 1: really explained things for us. Um his business happened to

567
00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:38,080
Speaker 1: be one of the beneficiaries. As he said of the pandemic,

568
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 1: that it was terrible charged people. You know, we're cleaning

569
00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:42,800
Speaker 1: out their houses. They were home with nothing to do

570
00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:45,640
Speaker 1: and just found all these valuable things which they could

571
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:49,080
Speaker 1: turn into. And f t S. You also wondered, though,

572
00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:52,360
Speaker 1: I mean, and we asked this of him, when we

573
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:54,720
Speaker 1: get to the other side of this pandemic, or maybe

574
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:56,360
Speaker 1: there won't be another side. We just learned to live

575
00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:59,479
Speaker 1: with it, and things enter a new stage of new normal.

576
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,160
Speaker 1: Whether this will still be a thing, or whether it

577
00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:05,160
Speaker 1: will kind of die off a little bit, whether it's

578
00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:07,120
Speaker 1: n f T S or anything else, or interest rate

579
00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:10,880
Speaker 1: start rising in people start looking at different kinds of assets. Yeah,

580
00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:13,760
Speaker 1: I think what really makes me think, wow, this is

581
00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:15,880
Speaker 1: going to be around is now when Tom Brady is

582
00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:18,520
Speaker 1: getting in the middle of it, It's like, we'll wait

583
00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:21,520
Speaker 1: a minute. Is this may has some significance here? And

584
00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:24,360
Speaker 1: then Mark Cuban is like, hey, you know what, this

585
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:29,280
Speaker 1: is something that I like. So I think it's me

586
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 1: isn't getting into it? I mean, if you have a

587
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:34,920
Speaker 1: sizable number of athletes getting into it, everyone feels like

588
00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:37,600
Speaker 1: they have to jump in and and capitalize. How to

589
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:42,640
Speaker 1: as well, monro Wi not kids. Feels better to be

590
00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:44,840
Speaker 1: number one than number five. I'll wear a number because

591
00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:46,400
Speaker 1: of mine. We have a chance to go for three

592
00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 1: and a rown. Good numbers are a good time. When

593
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:50,120
Speaker 1: I first start wearing the number, how we just have

594
00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:53,480
Speaker 1: the im proud Bloomberg business of sports. The number of

595
00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:56,520
Speaker 1: the week? Where well? Where ware wait? Wait? Well, time

596
00:31:56,600 --> 00:31:59,920
Speaker 1: to break some hearts. It's time for the number of

597
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:02,760
Speaker 1: the week. Here we go, Here we go, we go?

598
00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:10,600
Speaker 1: Come on all right? Now? This one, uh involves some

599
00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:15,160
Speaker 1: news that's been taking place. Soccer investors are targeting Brazilian

600
00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:18,640
Speaker 1: clubs because of local law changes, and a lot of

601
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:23,600
Speaker 1: people are looking at those soccer clubs now. Uh. Several

602
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:28,560
Speaker 1: days ago, Palm Beach, Florida investor John texter A digital

603
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:35,440
Speaker 1: entrepreneur agreed to invest this in Rio de Janeiro's Botafogo,

604
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:39,520
Speaker 1: including the club debt, and they show you how much

605
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:43,240
Speaker 1: the fans loved it. They danced in the streets in

606
00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: the hope that that cash injection will bring a story

607
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:49,360
Speaker 1: team back to its former glory. I want to know

608
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:54,560
Speaker 1: what's that figure that John Texter invested in the team?

609
00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:58,520
Speaker 1: This cash injection? Yea, and this would be in dollars.

610
00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 1: This would be in dollars, and that is Derek. Can

611
00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:08,280
Speaker 1: you can you give us some context? How long has

612
00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:10,600
Speaker 1: this team been on the selling block or not even

613
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:13,960
Speaker 1: selling block? How long has it been in financial need?

614
00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:24,760
Speaker 1: Are these questions allowed? So listen, so listen and listen.

615
00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:26,440
Speaker 1: I want to ask now, is like, can I use

616
00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:29,280
Speaker 1: partial first name? Just waiting for bar to give me

617
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:32,880
Speaker 1: some number, I will say this that Texter owns an

618
00:33:32,920 --> 00:33:37,640
Speaker 1: interest in Premier League team Crystal Palace, So I can

619
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:41,160
Speaker 1: tell you that about Texter. Also, m hmm, I'm gonna

620
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:46,200
Speaker 1: say fifty five million dollars, but I think that's too much. Well,

621
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 1: I'm gonna see your fifty five and raise you ten million.

622
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:55,080
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go sixty five million. Prices right, rules Lynchy

623
00:33:55,160 --> 00:33:57,680
Speaker 1: got it. But we'll tell you how far you guys

624
00:33:57,680 --> 00:34:01,920
Speaker 1: are off. John Texter Nea to invest around three hundred

625
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:07,320
Speaker 1: thirty million dollars in the club. I mean, and you

626
00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:09,480
Speaker 1: should if there's a picture, if you can go, and

627
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:11,440
Speaker 1: of course you know we can go if you have

628
00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:14,160
Speaker 1: the terminal. This see this is me plugging the terminal.

629
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:17,240
Speaker 1: Go to the terminal and you can see the picture

630
00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:21,200
Speaker 1: of the crowd and all the fans like, who yeah,

631
00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:24,000
Speaker 1: and I see why with three d thirty million dollars.

632
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:33,520
Speaker 1: So my one week winning streak ended. Oh well, listen,

633
00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:39,239
Speaker 1: we got some lovely parting gifts. This is the Bloomberg

634
00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:43,279
Speaker 1: Businesses for show. Here. We're here each and every week

635
00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:46,240
Speaker 1: at the same time, plus online wherever you get your podcasts.

636
00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:48,960
Speaker 1: Catch those Monday's, Wednesdays and Thursdays on Michael Barrow Twitter

637
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,600
Speaker 1: at Big bar Sports. And I'm Scarlett Fou. That's Scarlet FO.

638
00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:56,400
Speaker 1: That's all right, I'm Scarlett at Scarlett fo. That's the

639
00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:59,160
Speaker 1: energy one. I only missed it by that much, but

640
00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:03,160
Speaker 1: still a win. Up Lynchy follow me at Lynch wpp

641
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Speaker 1: the lift in his voice. Student again. Next week we

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Speaker 1: got big moving stories, big money in the world of sports.

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Speaker 1: You're listening from the Bird Business of Sports and the

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Speaker 1: Bird Radio around the world.