Topps Partners With Bundesliga For Inaugural NFT Launch

They are the kingpins of the sports card business and have stood as the industry standard-bearer for decades.

Thus, when Topps opts to make a bold move into the world of the blockchain – specifically the realm of non-fungible tokens – and decides to partner with one of the world’s major soccer leagues, Germany’s Bundesliga, it’s massive news.

There’s been an evolving marriage between sports teams and leagues and cryptocurrency for well over a year now. Soccer teams around the globe began marketing NFTs to their supporters during the early summer of 2020. It could even be argued that the gamechanger in this development was the sports betting industry. Several leading online sports betting sites such as the Betnow sportsbook moved early into the development of Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency to accept them as methods for funding an account. 

Betting sites don’t tend to make many missteps when it comes to managing their business affairs, so when they were accepting of this new development in the financial world so willingly, it certainly caught the attention of others in the sporting industry.

A New Venture For Topps, Bundelisga

In terms of a sports-based product, neither Topps nor the Bundesliga had ventured into the blockchain prior to their partnership that was announced earlier this month. The Bundesliga 2020-2021 Season Celebration NFT Collection is the first-ever collection of Bundesliga NFTs and is available exclusively on ToppsNFTs.com. The Bundesliga 2020-2021 Season Celebration NFT Collection by Topps is powered by the Avalanche blockchain platform. It features top players such as Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland, as well as rising stars and memorable moments all from the 2020-2021 season.

Topps has partnered with Ava Labs to develop ToppsNFTs.com – an easy-to-use application powered by Avalanche (AVAX), a fast, low cost, and eco-friendly public blockchain. ToppsNFTs.com removes the need for special wallets or token apps and provides a centralized location to buy, sell and explore officially licensed Topps NFT collections. The site unites the familiar, user-friendly experiences of traditional ecommerce applications with the power of blockchain infrastructure.

“Our vision is to create a fun, easy-to-use collecting experience on the blockchain that appeals to all fans whether they have experience with NFTs or not,” Tobin Lent, VP & General Manager of Topps Digital Sports & Entertainment at The Topps Company, said in a statement. “Whether you support clubs like RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund, VfL Wolfsburg or Eintracht Frankfurt, or are a fan of a particular player, the Bundesliga community will have the opportunity to collect their favorite stars as well as their favorite moments from the 2020-21 season, all in one collection.”

Standard and Premium Packs of the Bundesliga 2020-2021 Season Celebration NFT Collection by Topps went on sale August 10th, with card rarities ranging from Common to Legendary. Collectors gained access to all types of NFT trading cards in this release, including video highlight and animated motion effect cards, iconic Bundesliga card designs and facsimile signatures.

How It Works

Topps NFTs are digital collectibles on the blockchain. Each NFT is created by Topps, but truly owned by fans that collect them. For technical folks, Topps NFTs are ERC 721 tokens, the most popular token standard compatible with many platforms including Ethereum.

To collect Topps NFTs, all you need is a Topps NFT account in order to to buy them. Those who already have an account can simply login and find a Topps NFT or pack for sale. Topps NFTs can be purchased with a Visa or Mastercard credit card. 

The digital NFT cards operate in cyberspace in similar manner to a traditional pack of cardboard trading cards. Every set of NFT collectibles is first created and sold by Topps in a fixed number of packs. These NFT packs are just like regular physical card packs in that they contain multiple unknown collectibles within them. After buying a pack, it can then be opened to unveil the new NFT collectibles.

Like traditional trading cards, these NFT cards can be exchanged with other collectors, or bought and sold. And like their cardboard cousins, demand for certain NFT cards will lead to an increase in the value they hold among collectors.