New app to allow crowd-investing in young sportsplayers

Most people can't participate in professional sports finance. Unless you're a billionaire or run a major corporation, you have no meaningful way in. Young athletes face the inverse problem: they need

By Aubrey Swanson·7 July 2020·2 min read

New app to allow crowd-investing in young sportsplayers

Key Points

Most people can't participate in professional sports finance.
Unless you're a billionaire or run a major corporation, you have no meaningful way in.
Young athletes face the inverse problem: they need

Most people can't participate in professional sports finance. Unless you're a billionaire or run a major corporation, you have no meaningful way in. Young athletes face the inverse problem: they need funding to reach elite status, but lack the backing to compete with athletes who have already secured financial support.

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SportyCo, a blockchain startup based in London, aims to change this with a platform that lets ordinary people invest in young athletes and claim a share of their future earnings from competition and endorsements. The platform lets regular investors purchase stakes in a promising athlete's career. When the athlete wins prize money or signs endorsement deals, a portion of those earnings flows back to the investors who backed their rise.

Those who invest in young talent take on substantial risk, betting their picks will reach the pinnacle of their sport. SportyCo's contracts require athletes to divert a large share of their earnings to the platform, ensuring investors capture returns if a professional career materializes.

Blockchain has other sports applications beyond athlete funding. The 2016 Olympics saw a cyberattack steal confidential medical records of U.S. athletes. If attackers had manipulated that data to flag athletes as unfit, those athletes would have missed critical competition windows. Blockchain creates records resistant to tampering, preventing such manipulation. Sports organizations could sell tickets through blockchain and let supporters interact with teams without intermediaries. Sports has been slow to adopt blockchain compared to logistics and other sectors, but momentum is building. Development teams are now creating blockchain systems for various sports applications: athlete financing, record keeping, ticket sales, fan engagement, and protecting athlete information.

MiningPool content is intended for information and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice.

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