SailGP, the global league co-founded by software mogul Larry Ellison, could have a team owned and operated by crypto enthusiasts as soon as its fourth season begins in late 2023.
SailGP on Thursday announced a multi-year partnership with blockchain development platform NEAR that will enable sailing and crypto fans to engage with their favorite teams and athletes in new ways.
The announcement came ahead of the SailGP season 2 finale, the Mubadala United States Sailing Grand Prix in San Francisco, which will culminate in Sunday's $1 million winner's podium race.
SailGP features some of the world's best sailors, including America's Cup winners and Olympic gold medalists, who compete aboard 50-foot catamarans with winged sails that can reach 60 mph as they glide over the waves. in hydrofoils. SailGP will expand from eight to 10 national teams for its third season.
While the deal with NEAR is expected to have many benefits for fans, including NFTs, the highlight would be ownership of a navigation team by a community of token holders known as a DAO, or decentralized autonomous organization.
The SailGP DAO would differ from traditional sports team structures in which a single owner or a small group makes the decisions, said SailGP co-founder Russell Coutts and NEAR Foundation executive director Marieke Flament. The DAO could involve people from around the world voting on everything from the management structure to the duration of the skipper's contract, and could even decide whether there should be a woman at the helm of the ship.
"In a way, that's why this is so exciting," Coutts said in a video interview. โThis is an innovative technology, an innovative initiative. We don't think it's been done before, especially on this scale. And when you think about it, with our events all over the world, too, we're not just in one particular territory. That is also of interest.โ
Coutts, a New Zealander who has won the America's Cup five times, said he hopes a DAO will attract more than sailors. "I think sports fans, race fans, entrepreneurs, tech people ... can imagine that this is a very diverse group of people and they would probably feed off each other's skills," he said. Coutts. "The whole concept of 'Hey, we'd like to have a say in what's going on,' that's going to appeal to a lot of people."
Coutts said a DAO would have to be viable enough for SailGP to sell him a position as a rig operator.
Coutts and Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle Corp., started SailGP after their two-time defending champion Oracle Team USA was defeated by Emirates Team New Zealand in the 2017 America's Cup. They redesigned the 50-foot catamarans used in that race and formed an annual circuit with races around the world.
Tom Slingsby, Olympic gold medalist and former America's Cup champion, led Team Australia to the inaugural championship and $1 million prize in 2019. Slingsby and Team USA captain Jimmy Spithill, two-time winner from the America's Cup, qualified for Sunday's $1 million, winner takes race to decide pandemic-delayed season 2 championship. The final position will be determined by five fleet races this weekend.
For Season 2, SailGP has been using Oracle Stream Analytics to provide real-time race metrics that are available to both sailors and fans watching on TV or online.
Coutts said one of the reasons for partnering with NEAR is that it is carbon neutral, which fits with the league's goal of being environmentally responsible.
"We want to be leaders in terms of technology, whether it's our boats, our media, the interactions with our fans," Coutts added. โWe want to be modern and leaders. We want to be at the forefront of not only what's happening today, but we want to watch and lead what's going to happen tomorrow.
Flament said NEAR was looking for a partner โthat was willing to innovate, and when I look at SailGP and the amount of data and innovation and what is being done with it, I think it's amazing. There is an openness to do new things and try new things.โ
___
Follow Bernie Wilson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/berniewilson
