DraftKings Marketplace's First NFT Scheduled Features Tom Brady

Sports enthusiasts and collectors get ready. DraftKings Marketplace NFT ecosystem is now live and ready to drop its first Preseason Access Collection NFT on Aug. 11.

The first drop will feature seven-time Super Bowl champion and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady. The rest of the DraftKings Marketplace NFTs are scheduled in the first Preseason Access Collection, which includes sports greats Wayne Gretzky, Tony Hawk, Naomi Osaka, Derek Jeter, and Tiger Woods.

It makes sense that the first NFT collection features Brady, not just because of his GOAT (Greatest of all Time) status but also because he's the co-founder of the Autograph.io NFT platform that DraftKings has partnered with for its Marketplace.

“NFTs bring an entirely new dimension to the collector experience, and I cannot wait for people to discover and engage with this first-ever drop of Autograph’s official digital collectibles,” said Brady in a statement. “We created Autograph as a way for fans and collectors to own a piece of iconic moments in sports and entertainment through authenticated and official digital collectibles, and we are just getting started.

DraftKings co-founder and president Matt Kalish said the company “could not imagine a more fitting figure” than Brady to headline the first NFT drop on DraftKings Marketplace.

According to the DraftKings Marketplace website, the Tom Brady Premier NFTs will drop on Aug. 11 between 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 pm ET. The Brady NFTs are priced anywhere from $12 to $100. The Tom Brady Signature NFTs will drop on Aug. 13 between 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. ET. The prices for the Signature NFTs, individually and personally signed by Brady, range from $250 to $1,500.

The sports-related NFTs will be available exclusively on DraftKings Marketplace and Autograph.io. There will be a limited number of NFTs available. The more the NFT costs, the less there are available.

Hockey legend Gretzky will be the next athlete featured on an NFT after Brady. Gretzky and the other athletes planned for NFTs all serve on the Autograph Advisory Board.

The drops of new NFTs are scheduled for Wednesday and Friday of every week, the DraftKings website states. However, only drops for the Brady NFTs are listed. A “waiting room” will open 30 minutes before the scheduled drop time. The waiting room isn't first-come, first-serve. Participants in the waiting room will have their spot in the queue randomly selected once the drop opens, the website states.

With the range of prices on the NFTs, DraftKings hopes to lower the barriers for fans who want to start collecting NFTs.

“The overall NFT market has already surged to over $2.5 billion in sales volume for the first half of 2021, and so whether someone is well-versed or barely familiar with digital collectibles, we envision DraftKings Marketplace being a premier platform for all within a trend that is decidedly here to stay,” Kalish said in a statement.

All DraftKings Marketplace NFTs are minted on an eco-friendly Ethereum Layer 2 solution for customers to store within their DraftKings Marketplace portfolio. The NFTs can be viewed at any time in the Marketplace portfolio or on the Autograph platform. Eventually, customers will also be able to transfer the NFTs to wallets on the Ethereum Mainnet.

DraftKings Marketplace will also allow customers to list their digital collectibles for sale.

Regardless of the edition they buy, each owner of a Preseason Access Pass will also be granted preferential access to a future drop from Autograph, the company says.