Investment Notes: One Future Football

We are excited to announce that Blackbird has led One Future Football's $3M pre-seed round. This is a huge milestone for the company. With this investment, One Future Football (1FF) will be able to continue developing its technology and expand its reach into new markets across the world.

A new world of sports enthusiasts

1FF is a virtual sports-focused platform designed to unite people through their shared love of sport.

The concept was inspired by an article about fictional clubs created to sell jerseys. 1FF's founder, Pete Davis, saw the potential for deeper fan connections through these clubs and teamed up with Rohit Bhargava. 

As someone who had managed brands’ social media accounts through his agency, Pete saw that these clubs could write their own backstories and create connections with fans that weren’t possible for ‘real’ clubs. The clubs invented rivalries, connected with celebrity fans and established relationships with local charities.

A crypto version of fantasy sports with an incredibly creative twist

The concept combines a new league with token-based ownership mechanics and a creative arm for player storytelling. Think Lil Miquela, a “19-year robot living in LA” with 3M subscribers on Instagram, but for a universe of soccer players.

Sporting teams are great examples of cultural institutions that stand the test of time. After all, are you more certain that the New York Yankees will be alive and well in 100 years or Coca-Cola?

At the core of each sports fan is the desire to be an owner, to influence the decisions each club makes and to endlessly debate the merits of each small decision. NFTs and web3 offer a unique opportunity to enable this at scale. Each club will be “owned” by the general public, and players represented as NFTs, can also be bought and sold. 1FF earns revenue when the NFTs are traded, the upfront minting fees and a percentage of the league revenue.

1FF is the crypto version of fantasy sports with an incredibly creative twist. If deep affinity is built with the clubs and players, then 1FF begins to interact with the real world: jerseys are sold, brand sponsorships are sold around events, and once a certain level of popularity is reached, broadcast rights are sold.

With this pre-seed round, the team hopes to sell the first clubs to celebrity majority owners, opening up new ways for fans to own a piece of players and begin the first three-month season of play.

1FF is a truly innovative concept that could reshape the world of sports, allowing fans to have a say in how their favourite teams are run and creating opportunities for players from all walks of life. With this pre-seed round and the official launch in July, bringing its creative vision of fantasy sports into reality. It will be fascinating to see what happens as 1FF grows over time, with its potential for real-world impact becoming more evident daily. We can’t wait to watch it unfold.