Analysis

The IPL Effect: Cricto NFTs surge in cricket fans craze

Analyzing the impact of the new season of IPL on FanCraze Cricto NFT collection on Flow blockchain

mrodin

May 11, 2023 • 3 min read

Art created for MetricsDAO by artghost

The Indian Premier League is now the world’s second-most lucrative sports league after the NFL. The sale of five-year media rights raised $6.2 billion last year, which is remarkable for a league that consists of just 74 games played over two months. In comparison, NFL has 272 games over six months.

This spectacular growth has come with having a massive fan base in south Asia, the most populous region in the world, followed by Australia and England. The league uses the fast-paced Twenty20 (T20) cricket format where games are over in less than 3 hours, as compared to the traditional longer version that went on for five days!

To capitalize on IPL’s new season, FanCraze released a fantasy league game, for which you need FanCraze Crictos (Cricket Moments) NFTs on the Flow blockchain to participate. The NFT collection, launched in association with cricket governing body ICC, dropped in mid-January.

More than 100k NFTs have been sold so far. The all-time highest price has been a whopping $22,000 for an NFT of Sachin Tendulkar, one of the legends of the game. Other standout sales include Virat Kohli's Moment NFT at $1,050 and MS Dhoni's NFT at $795. The median price of the collection was $12 pre-season, and rose to $17 as the season got underway on March 31. With NFTs priced as low as $1, users will have opportunities to trade up.

So, is it profitable to trade Crictos when the season is on? Metrics App analyst zakkisyed delved deep into the world of Crictos to find out (this is not financial advice: remember to do your own research!)

The IPL Effect drove up the numbers

Once the 16th season of the IPL began, the activity surged. The number of daily users interacting with the Cricket Moment collection rose by 42%, sales by 33.5%, and daily USD volumes soared 86%.

[chart] daily volume: IPL effect — Source: zakkisyed

[chart] daily users: IPL effect — Source: zakkisyed

Enthusiastic buyers

The new season’s start led to a jump in buying, with most users purchasing four or more NFTs in the $11-50 price range – far from the cheapest bracket. Data shows: most users found the NFTs affordable and enthusiastically participated in the marketplace.

[chart] buying patters during ipl — Source: zakkisyed

[chart] spending patterns during ipl — Source: zakkisyed

Raining profits

The majority of users were able to make profitable trades on their NFTs. The highest profit was recorded at $453, which is a good margin for NFTs purchased near the median price.

[chart] profitable users — Source: zakkisyed

Main takeaway

The profitability of Crictos NFTs is likely to keep attracting more users to the FanCraze platform. Data reveals that Crictos on Flow were a lucrative investment for those who got in at the right time, before the cricket season began and the IPL Effect drove the surge.

The Crictos collection is a successful example of creating an interactive experience for sports fans. Users jumped on this opportunity to engage with their favorite IPL clubs, and for many - to turn a profit.

The success and growth of FanCraze Crictos during the IPL season might be an example to other leagues to launch NFTs pre-season. This will allow sports NFTs to grow, and will onboard new users to web3 by expanding fan choices in the sports NFT ecosystem.

Check out the full dashboard here:

Cricket Moments x IPL 2023