Key Takeaways
- FIFA launched RTB tokens on Avalanche for its fans, shifting major sports ticketing to the blockchain.
- Arielle Pennington said World Cup activity boosted Avalanche volume 24x, expanding mass Web3 adoption.
- Following a complaint from Gespa, Letitia James launched a probe to evaluate FIFA’s ticket sales.
Avalanche Facilitates Over 60,000 FIFA World Cup Ticket Transactions
The upcoming FIFA World Cup, estimated to attract over 3.5 million stadium attendees, is driving settlements of some of its ticketing transactions to the blockchain.
For this edition, FIFA allowed fans to purchase so-called “Right to Buy” (RTB) digital assets, securing their slot to purchase tickets for any match through FIFA Connect, a digital platform built on top of Avalanche, a blockchain allowing the creation of custom L1 blockchains.
Arielle Pennington, SVP of Growth at Avalanche, reported that usage and adoption of Avalanche have exploded as ticketing transactions for the FIFA World Cup surge.
“Over the last few days alone, FIFA ticket activity has generated more than 60,000 transactions on Avalanche. Transaction volume increased as much as 24x above normal levels. Active addresses grew roughly 10x,” she disclosed, highlighting that the tournament had not even started.
Pennington argued that this shows blockchain tech can be adopted for different use cases in the background, as users don’t necessarily care about the inner workings of their apps.
“For years, much of the blockchain industry has focused on convincing people to care about blockchains,” she declared, criticizing the upfront approach that tech proposers had adopted before.
Finally, she assessed that no user or institution focuses on using a specific tech to satisfy any use case. Instead, they seek to build apps or services offering “speed, reliability, security, transparency, and global accessibility.”
Pennington said that “if blockchain can deliver those things better than existing systems, people will use products powered by it without ever thinking about the underlying technology.”
“Millions of fans from around the world are interacting with a ticketing system powered by Avalanche. Most of them will never know or care what blockchain is running underneath. And honestly, that is a good thing,” she concluded.
Nonetheless, the surge of these RTB options has been condemned by global regulators. In October, Swiss gambling regulator Gespa introduced a complaint claiming that these tokens could constitute illegal gambling services. Also, New York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport recently launched a probe into FIFA’s ticketing practices.
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