Bengaluru-headquartered blockchain-based esports fan engagement startup STAN has announced the roll-out of a first-of-its-kind Official Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) and Limited Digital Collectibles’ (LDC) Collection in collaboration with 50+ well-known gaming creators and esports athletes in India. With this move, STAN has now become India’s first platform (app) to launch the NFTs of gaming and esports industry content creators and gamers. Notably, both the STAN NFTs and exclusive LDCs are limited in quantity and are going to be made available for purchase for a very short period of time.
Being a web3 fan engagement platform, STAN intends to be the frontrunner in exploring and utilising the NFTs’ use-cases of unique identity and ownership to optimally engage with the growing fans’ community in India. Among some of the prominent gamers/creators with whom STAN has tied-up for launching their NFTs and/or exclusive limited digital collectibles include: Jonathan, GHATAK, Total Gaming, Lokesh Gamer, and AS Gaming.
As a part of this initiative, STAN will roll out total of over 10,000 NFTs and over 2,000 exclusive LDCsare going to be launched over the next two months or so. During this time period (upcoming), STAN will also be conducting multiple in-app NFT drops and NFT sales for each of the signed creators on pre-specified dates. All the creators whose NFT and LDCs are going to go live on the STAN platform will additionally be engaged in a plethora of cross-marketing and promotional activities mainly aimed at notifying their users about the sale.
Unlike other NFTs that often consist just an image, song or any other creative asset, STAN NFTs stand out since they have the aspect of ‘utility value’ intrinsically attached to them; as the users buying STAN NFTs will instantly unlock certain perks linked to a creator/athlete for instant gratification. For instance, by owning STAN NFTs, the NFT-owners would be eligible to get access to a variety of perks such as Instagram shout-outs, talk shows, meetups, play-a-match with a creator live on stream, access to Creators’ Guild, personalised messages from the athlete/creator, and many more! Furthermore, these NFTs can also be withdrawn and sold or traded in NFT marketplaces like OpenSea.
Speaking on their NFT-launch initiative, STAN co-founder and COO Nauman Mulla says, “We at STAN are excited to launch the NFTs of an array of esports athletes and creators in India who are associated mainly with the Free Fire and BGMI games; and at the same time, we are extremely proud to be the first in India to do so. Soon, our users will be easily able to purchase NFTs and exclusive limited digital collectibles through the STAN mobile app. The idea and objective behind this is to enable the users – including non-crypto-native ones – to tap into the burgeoning NFT gaming economy, while also engaging them actively along with their favourite esports creators and idols.”
Around a month back, STAN had rolled out a one-of-its-kind in-app NFT waitlist for its users, with the prime objective of providing the creators’ fans an early opportunity to own their NFTs, even before those were launched. STAN’s NFT waitlist has had received a highly positive response so far, with around 18,000 people enrolling for the waitlist. Going forward, the enrolled users in NFT waitlist will be able to have perks such as Early Access to the NFT Sale (two days prior) and Discount on the Sale (up to 10 per cent discount on the sales of NFT and exclusive limited digital collectibles). In addition, around 1000 early-registered users of the waitlist will be rewarded with free NFTs.
STAN is a platform that provides fans to get a chance to collect, play and trade the collectibles/NFTs of their favorite esports players and content creators, via which they will win various perks and rewards. And to that end, they have already inked NFT-related partnerships with multiple leading Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) and Garena Free Fire creators in India. In the near future, STAN has ambitious plans to build a marketplace to allow buying and selling NFTs and plans to host variety of mega fan engagement activities for NFT holders like STAN Fest, as well as give exclusive access to various types of STAN services for the NFT holders.
As per a recent report, the global sports memorabilia industry is estimated to be valued at $33 billion as of 2022 and is further expected to reach upto $227.2 billion by 2032, while growing at a CAGR of 21.8 per cent. Another recent report reveals that India has now become a global leader in terms of NFT gaming adoption. Off late, NFTs, digital collectibles, trading cards and other types of digital assets have spiked in interest amongst the Indian gaming industry significantly. By taking a pioneering leap in bringing NFTs to Indian esports and gaming, STAN is attempting to align the rise in web3 gaming with its own mission of empowering fans and bringing them closer to their favourite esports creators and legends.
