New Fantasy Sports Startup Launches With A Franchise Model, Supported By The Blockchain

A brand new fantasy sports startup has emerged, hailing from Boca Raton, Florida. Despite attention having largely shifted from the fast growth of fantasy sports operations to the proliferation of sports betting plays, 3 co-founders insist that their new fantasy sports project has what it takes to not only capture your attention, but become a strong business model for years to come.

The Crown League is not what you might first expect from yet another fantasy sports model. It is based on the concept of creating franchises across the U.S., with appointed general managers and paid scouts to help draft and maintain (through trades and free agent pick-ups) fantasy sports lineups. You, as the consumer and fan, will have a vested interest in the various teams and/or league through your purchase of tokens, and the entire process will run on the blockchain.

“Owning a franchise, actually being invested in it, its performance, hiring and overseeing its management by a professional GM alongside a community of other owners who share your passion, would turn the current limitations of both professional sports and the fantasy market into real business opportunities,” states a paragraph in a letter written by co-founders Dan Nissanoff, Derek Siskin and Mat Sposta.

The Crown League changes the fantasy model from win/lose all to a sliding scale based on market variables.

Right now, you may be getting emails from your season-long fantasy sports commissioners to set the rules for the league and determine a draft date. A typical topic of discussion is pay-outs. You either win or lose. In The Crown League, the concept is that you will own a piece of a particular fantasy franchise and the value of your tokens will fluctuate based on the market’s economics. It’s a supply/demand formula as opposed to win or lose all standard for fantasy sports leagues.

The co-founders make reference to the fact that the idea of broad public ownership of a professional sports team isn’t unprecedented. The Green Bay Packers have offered up its franchise to public ownership; however, it has limitations. The Packers don’t offer dividends, the stock can’t appreciate in value, the ownership is illiquid and non-transferable, there are no profits, voting rights are extremely limited and it’s purely symbolic. With The Crown League, there will be annual tokenized dividends, tokens that may appreciate in value, daily liquidity, an exclusive license to earn newly minted tokens and voting rights in franchise/roster decision-making and managerial hiring/firing.

The 1st season of The Crown League is expected to coincide with the start of the 2019 NFL regular season, and the initial draft is scheduled to occur in Summer 2019. That initial draft will be vital to the success of the respective franchises, as it will build the foundation for the team, with all subsequent drafts restricted to incoming rookies and free agents. Anticipated franchise locations include Miami, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York, New England, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Seattle. General managers and front office management should be announced in January 2019.

You may start with buying into the Miami fantasy franchise and then shift to owning tokens in Las Vegas.

If you don’t like the team you’ve put money into, then you will be able to sell your tokens on the marketplace and buy into another team if you choose. General managers will ultimately make team personnel decisions, but they will also be accountable to the token holders who will vote together on pivotal matters. If the GMs aren’t performing, then the token holders will have the ability to replace them. Everyone will be incentivized to win based on the league distributing tokens for winning weekly matchups, achieving predefined statistical benchmarks and how each team places at the end of each season. A portion of team earnings will be distributed to token holders on an annual basis, which includes a share of profits generated from any applicable sponsorships, advertising, merchandising, licensing and event ticket sales.

The theory is that you will most likely wish to affiliate with a franchise that is located in close proximity to where you live, as The Crown League will emphasize the creation of local meetups and live national league events intended to bring those communities together in real life settings.

Nissanoff, a serial entrepreneur who has successfully seen very profitable exits, passionately believes in the concept of The Crown League and believes that fans should start exploiting their fandom for commercial gain. He notes that someone else is profiting from your excitement about sports — the team owners, the broadcasting networks, the vendors, the fantasy platforms and the league. His startup is a medium where you can start taking some control of a team made up of athletes who are performing in real life.

Thus far, Nissanoff and his co-founders have had a lot of success finding people interested in the startup. The group is believed to have raised roughly $5 million on a $30 million valuation and has celebrity participation. Founding Members also include sports and entertainment industry veteran Happy Walters, Catalyst Sports & Media President Josh Swartz and NFL Chief Communications Strategist Joe Lockhart.

As of August 14, you can get in on the action by participating in a pre-sale of The Crown League’s security tokens (CRL), in a Reg D SAFT offering to accredited investors and a Reg S SAFT Offering to international investors. In the near future, the league franchises’ security tokens will be sold to the public. The offering is being led by Americas Executions, LLC, “AmerX,” a FINRA regulated investment bank. The Crown League states that 1.6 billion of the total 2 billion league tokens will be reserved in trust exclusively for distribution to franchise owners over time.