PLANO, Texas, April 27, 2022 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Stack Sports — the global technology leader in sports software announced today that it will be partnering with the NEAR Foundation, a Swiss non-profit that oversees the NEAR blockchain ecosystem, to launch an athlete-focused NFT platform. The new Stack NFT platform will give all athletes an opportunity to create and mint their own NFTs on NEAR’s blockchain.
“We are continually looking for new ways to serve our partners and sports families,” said Brandon Shangraw VP of Marketing and Innovation at Stack Sports. “This athlete-focused NFT platform will allow our partners to access cutting edge innovation that was previously unavailable to our market. We see this as a huge value add for sports organizations and families.”
Momentum continues to build around Stack Sports and its ecosystem as they add value for sports organizations. The largest ecosystem of value-add services now boasts over 50 products and services designed to help organizations grow participation while transforming the experience for athletes.
“NEAR is the perfect partner to help us bring this product to market,” said Kyle Lundon, VP of Product at Stack Sports. “With their focus on scalability, security, and a consumer-friendly user experience they are a layer one blockchain technology that can support sports at scale. Their leadership in this space has given us confidence they can support the ten million plus sports families we serve.”
The NEAR blockchain is faster than the world’s most used blockchain and capable of 100,000s of transactions per second, with lower transaction fees. This allows the Stack NFT platform to give athletes a chance to mint their own NFTs at a very low cost and on a carbon-neutral blockchain. For Stack Sports users, the first NFTs they create will be free as an added benefit of being in the largest sports ecosystem. That means users of products like Sports Connect, CaptainU, Skyhawks, and Stack Team App will all have the opportunity to jump into creating an NFT at no cost.
NEAR runs in concert with Ethereum, along with other blockchains, allowing for the free flow of assets and communication between networks for the betterment of all. This means that the NFTs created on the NEAR blockchain are best-in-class and come without these portability restrictions that exist elsewhere in the NFT ecosystem.
“Sports is a clear space for innovation within the NEAR ecosystem,” said Josh Daniels Head of Funding at the NEAR Foundation. “We are excited to partner with Stack Sports who has the vision and depth of experience to develop an NFT platform for all athletes.”
The NEAR Foundation aims to help evangelize, raise awareness, support, and grow their ecosystem by allocating funding, including non-equity grants. To date, the foundation has allocated over $12M to nearly 600 grantees.
About NEAR:
NEAR is a high-performance blockchain that is designed to be super-fast, incredibly secure, and infinitely scalable. NEAR’s vision is to create a network that enables people to re-imagine finance, creativity, and community in new and inclusive ways.
NEAR is built by an award-winning team of engineers and entrepreneurs to be simple to use, inclusive and good for the environment. NEAR is backed by top VCs such as A16Z, Pantera Capital, Electric Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Blockchain.com, and Baidu Ventures.
About Stack Sports:
With nearly 50 million users in 35 countries, Stack Sports is a global technology leader in SaaS platform offerings for the sports industry. The company provides world-class software and services to support national governing bodies, youth sports associations, leagues, clubs, parents, coaches, and athletes. Some of the largest and most prominent sports organizations including the U.S. Soccer Federation, Little League Baseball and Softball, and Pop Warner Little Scholars rely on Stack Sports technology to run and manage their organizations. Stack Sports is headquartered in Dallas and is leading the industry one team at a time focusing on four key pillars — Grassroots Engagement, Participation Growth, Recruiting Pathways, and Elite Player Development. To learn more about how Stack Sports is transforming the sports experience, please visit: https://stacksports.com/.
News Source: Stack Sports
