Kansas is latest program to step into NFT segment of the vast NIL space

A partnership that will be announced today between Kansas and Mercury, a NFT platform company, is designed to unlock the door to an enhanced fan experience for the school’s legions of basketball supporters. It could also serve as a harbinger of a new way to define fandom. 

“We call it the future of fan engagement,” Porter Grieve, the CEO and co-founder of Mercury, told On3.

The partnership, which is in collaboration with G3 Marketing, is among the first to combine a university-licensed NFT (non-fungible token) deal with a NIL deal that supports athletes through a personalized platform called “Rock Chalk.” There, fans can buy, sell and trade Kansas collectibles, which include limited-edition digital collectibles from coach Bill Self and the players.

Kansas’ announcement marks the latest prominent program to step into the NFT segment of the vast NIL space. In December, Kentucky’s men’s basketball team became the first college program to sign a deal with Mercury. Several schools or companies have announced plans related to the NFT marketplace. More broadly, NFT sales totaled $25 billion last year, one year after seeing only $95 million in sales in 2020, according to data collector DappRadar.

Mercury, which is partnering with KU’s athletic department as well as its men’s basketball team, strives to enable universities to create innovative digital fan experiences to make selling digital collectibles seamless and customized. For universities, it aims to simplify the process of developing a marketing strategy and design to ultimately drive fan engagement. For players, it creates an easy way to put NIL dollars in their pockets. And for fans, it enables supporters of the tradition-rich program to enhance what it means to be a fan. 

“It’s something that is very powerful and will be a tool for the future for all student-athletes,” Grieve said. “We want to make sure that for anyone who buys a ‘Rock Chalk’ NFT that it is not the end of the journey. They are sort of along for the ride and part of this community to deliver forever utility as long as they are Kansas basketball fans and as long as they’re holding that NFT.”

This is billed as a time-efficient way for Kansas basketball players to earn NIL compensation because they can promote the NFTs on their social media channels at their convenience. “The beauty of it on the players’ side is that it’s incredibly low-lift,” Grieve said. “We bring them the NFTs of their likeness and they say, ‘Hey, this is awesome’ or ‘Hey, change this and change this.’ When we sell them on the platform to fans, they get a portion of the revenue.”

Details on the revenue distribution model have yet to be disclosed. But this NIL deal does involve all members of the Kansas basketball team, Grieve said, one of the nation’s most marketable programs.

The website, RockChalk.io, goes live this morning. Fans can enter their email address to be first in line for the first NFT drop on February 19. There also will be links to join the digital community, where fans can learn first about upcoming NFT drops and other benefits. 

The important part, Grieve said, is that fans who purchase NFTs won’t just have a “digital bobblehead,” as he called it, but also access to a smorgasbord of cool things. They will have a chance to win tickets or perhaps even meet players. Grieve emphasized that they don’t want this to feel transactional. Rather, he said, “we want this to feel like an exclusive digital club that really brings these fans closer to what they love, which is Kansas basketball.”

Mercury has plans to expand its service to other marquee programs. “That said, we’re not going to market with everyone we see, everyone we talked to,” Grieve said. “We’re really focused right now on bringing to market some core iconic schools and brands and partners.”