Quick take:
- With the investment, Rario will have access to Dream Sports’ 140 million users.
- Rario has recently signed a multi-year partnership with Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association.
- Indian cricket fans can buy, sell, and trade NFTs through fiat-only mediums on Rario.
Cricket NFT platform Rario announced today that it has raised $120 million in its Series A funding round led by Dream Capital, with participation from Alpha Wave Global, which joins Animoca Brands, Presight Capital, and Kingsway Capital.
Rario has the biggest share of cricket NFT rights globally through exclusive partnerships with six international cricket leagues and a roster of over 900 cricketers. Rario produces NFT series for the Hero Caribbean Premier League, Lanka Premier League, Abu Dhabi T10 League, and Legends League Cricket, Lanka League.
The platform also has over 30 exclusive brand ambassadors like Aaron Finch, Faf Du Plessis, Jason Holder, and many more. With Dream Capital’s investment, Rario will have access to Dream Sports’ 140 million users.
“Cricket is the 2nd largest sport in the world with more than 1.5 billion fans globally. NFTs are creating new forms of engagement allowing fans to own and trade digital collectibles. Rario’s global cricket NFT ecosystem will be further strengthened by the 140 million sports fans on Dream Sports,” said, Ankit Wadhwa, co-Founder & CEO, Rario.
“DreamCap is glad to partner with Rario to help sports fans engage deeper with their favourite players and teams. Web3 use cases in sports are transformational, and we are looking to back more startups in the space globally with innovative utilities of NFTs,” added Dev Bajaj, chief strategy officer, Dream Sports.
Founded in 2021 by Ankit Wadhwa and Sunny Bhanot, Ratio has signed a multi-year exclusive partnership with Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association – one of the year’s biggest cricket NFT deals – to create an Australian cricket metaverse of collectibles and gaming.
Through Rario, cricket fans can engage as a community and own a piece of cricket history through digital collectibles ranging from player cards, video moments, to cricket artefacts. Indian cricket fans can buy, sell, and trade NFTs through fiat-only mediums such as credit cards, debit cards, and bank transfers on Rario.
Since its launch, Rario has sold over 50,000 NFTs to sports fans across 20 countries with the USA, UK, Australia, and India as its top four markets.
Cricket NFT platforms have been attracting substantial funding lately. Rario’s direct competitor, FanCraze, which launched in January raised $100 million in March with football start Cristiano Ronaldo among one of its backers.
The sports memorabilia NFT market is seeing a boom, with football leagues, basketball associations, tennis events, and now cricket cashing in on the NFT craze. Deloitte predicts that the sports NFT industry “will generate $2 billion in transactions in 2022.”
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