‘How to make $4m overnight’: The complicated world of All Blacks and digital art

It was only two years ago that sports teams, leagues and international superstars were being told that they could get rich quick if they were early adopters of non-fungible tokens.

There were predictions that sport
was going to be at the forefront of a digital revolution that would be akin to a modern-day gold rush, as the revenue opportunities linked to NFTs were, supposedly, almost unimaginable.

For the uninitiated, NFTs are non-interchangeable digital assets that are stored on a blockchain, giving them unique proof of ownership that can be verified and authenticated on whichever platform they are hosted.

The excitement about sport, was that it would be able to produce collectable, digital art – video and audio clips, and images of iconic moments, players and events – that could be traded among fans.

And for a period, the market boomed. The NBA was one of the first major bodies to embrace NFTs and its Top Shot collection – licensed video…