Quick take:
- Colts Hall of Famer Edgerrin James has joined Upstream as a strategic brand ambassador.
- James will advise professional and college athletes on integrating NFTs into their personal brand building strategies.
- James brings exposure to Upstream andHorizon’s sports division Global Fan Exchange.
Digital securities and NFT exchange, Upstream, powered by Horizon Fintex (Horizon) and MERJ Exchange Limited, announced today that it has signed Colts Hall of Famer Edgerrin James as a strategic brand ambassador.
In his role, James will advise professional and college athletes on integrating NFTs into their personal brand building strategies. As a strategic brand ambassador, James brings exposure to Upstream and Horizon’s sports division “Global Fan Exchange,” which gives athletes the tools to generate new revenue streams and create brand longevity through fan engagement NFTs.
As an NFL Hall of Famer with 170,000 followers on Instagram, James brings with him an extensive network of NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL athletes and a large fanbase to help drive Upstream’s growth initiatives across the sports and entertainment industries.
Without the need for prior blockchain knowledge, Upstream simplifies the NFT creation process for athletes and makes it easy for fans to purchase NFTs from a single app. After an NFT sale, athletes can withdraw profits immediately and receive royalty payments each time an NFT is traded.
Unlike most NFT platforms, Upstream does not charge gas fees, which means creators and NFT collectors can make transactions at a relatively lower cost. Fans can purchase NFTs on Upstream with PayPal, Credit, Debit, US dollars, or USDC stablecoin.
“My focus is to use my platform to continue building up young and professional athletes financially. When I saw Upstream’s vision and the care they took to integrate safeguards for athletes and their fans, I recognized they were going to be a major player in this space and that their mission aligned with mine. Especially now that NCAA NIL rules have changed, college athletes are looking for new revenue streams they can maintain control of,” said Edgerrin James.
James joins an existing team of partners and brand ambassadors in sports, music and entertainment, including Bron Studios, Pitbull, and Timberland’s Beatclub platform.
Deloitte predicts that the sports NFT industry “will generate $2 billion in transactions in 2022. As the NFT sports memorabilia market continues booming, Upstream joins other platforms such as DraftKings and SportStack in making a play for their share of the sports NFT market.
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