Here Are 10 DAOs That Could Revolutionize The Sports Industry

I have to be 100% real with you…

When I first heard about DAOs — I didn't get the appeal.

Then again, hearing the term “Decentralized Autonomous Organization” probably loses most people the first time they come across it.

But if you can look past that and break down the meaning — you can start to see how and why DAOs have the potential to change the way organizations are owned and operated in multiple industries.

In the simplest form, a DAO is a just community-owned and governed entity.

“For the people, by the people.”

Most of these groups share three key characteristics:

1. A group of financial supporters with a shared interest.
2. A pool of money called a treasury.
3. Decisions about how to spend that money.

All of this is enabled by blockchain technology which provides trustless transactions and transparency for all members.

With sports, this kind of model makes complete sense.

Sports are community vehicles.

Teams and leagues are mainly influenced by athletes and fans, even though they rarely retain ownership as participants.

With DAOs, the way fans and athletes interact with teams, leagues, and organizations could completely change in the near future.

Here are 10 DAOs that have the potential to change the sports industry in one way or another:

1. KrauseHouse: Can a DAO own and control an NBA team one day? KrauseHouse seems to think so. KrauseHouse is a community of hoop fanatics on a mission to buy an NBA team. They’ve raised over $4 million by selling NFTs and this past summer they bought 25 Fire NFTs in the BIG3 Ball Hogs Team which allows ownership-like value and utility in the team.
2. LinksDAO: Golf is becoming popular amongst the masses and LinksDAO is proof. They’re on a mission to own one of the world’s greatest golf courses. LinksDAO has several brand partners and being a member comes with an array of exclusive benefits beyond the ability to become a member at the first IRL golf course.
3. GarageXYZ: If you love racing, then GarageXYZ is the DAO for you. They define themselves as, “A modern-day car club, connecting automotive enthusiasts with motorsport brands and racing legends.” Their ultimate goal is to will build, own, and operate the first community-owned racing franchise.
4. TechRuns: Built around tech, culture, and basketball, TechRuns is bringing web3 hoops to cities nationwide. It’s a global collective with a shared vision to bring health and wellness to the blockchain by building the ultimate playground at the intersection of sports, crypto, and culture.
5. Karate Combat: the world’s premier full-contact striking league, is among to become the first sports league to transition its governance to its fans and athletes (DAO) by December 2022 when they drop their $KARATE token. The organization plans to give away at least half of its tokens to fans and fighters for free, with voting taking place on a dedicated mobile app, and token owners will receive rewards for successfully predicting the outcomes of contests.
6. MGoDao: MGoDAO and Draftly teamed up to unite fans and athletes from the University of Michigan by utilizing Web3 technology. The goal is to create more than just another NIL collective, but rather a community and engagement platform to optimize the benefits for student-athletes and fans of Michigan athletics.
7. CanesDAO: Very similar to MGoDAO, CanesDAO is uniting the University of Miami fans and athletes. CanesDAO will enable every Hurricanes fan to directly support the advancement of University of Miami athletics in a fully transparent way. Some of the benefits include access to exclusive tailgates, events, and giveaways and joining a network of passionate Canes fans.
8. BuyTheBroncos: Wanting to buy the Denver Broncos is a pretty specific goal, and this DAO was close to making it happen. They defined themselves as “A community dedicated to using modern technology to buy the Denver Broncos as a global fanbase.” Even though, the team recently sold to Sam Walton for a record-breaking $4.65 billion, the BuyTheBroncos DAO was strategizing to become a serious contender with a group that included professional athletes, lawyers, accountants, economists, and developers.
9. The Players Company + BankDAO: Founded by athletes, for athletes, The Players Company is a collective of over 300 professional athletes committed to empowering people. TPC will launch products and systems to enable wealth generation across our many communities. The first of which is BankDAO, a community-owned wealth-building platform.
10. Final Frontier: This DAO is a professional gamer’s guild focused on digital industrial development, Play2Earn gaming, business relations, and logistics/multifaction operational security for Star Atlas missions (That’s a mouthful). One of the few, if not only eSports DAOs, their mission is to build a safe home for players across the entire metaverse.

Are DAOs really the future?

There are many different types of DAOs in every industry including social DAOs, protocol and project-based DAOs, and even former-companies-turned-DAOs.

DAOs are the natural economic entity of web3.

Will DAOs be the future business structure in every industry?

Who knows as of right now.

What can I say is that if you want to be a community participant in a web3 ecosystem, a DAO is how it’s done in most cases.

And specifically within sports, the use-case is on point.

Not every DAO will sustain long-term, just like not every web3 project or platform will make it.

But the communities that are built with intention, strategy, and patience will revolutionize aspects of the industry in ways we’ve never seen before.

Mark my words.

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