Kevin Durant will play a prominent role in the two-year deal, including curating Top Shot Moments and appearing in video features.
On Wednesday, Thirty Five Ventures and blockchain technology company Dapper Labs announced a multi-year partnership that will feature co-branded activations across the Boardroom media network.
The two-year, multi-faceted partnership will help bring Dapper’s wildly popular NBA Top Shot platform to life in unique ways, with Kevin Durant prominently included. Durant and Thirty Five Ventures will have a creative development role as part of the landmark deal, with the Brooklyn Nets superstar both curating and creating Top Shot highlight Moments and multimedia projects.
“Top Shot is the future for basketball fans, bringing them closer to players and building community across the sport in new and innovative ways,” Durant said. “At Boardroom, we’ve also been at the forefront of the NFT space, and I’m excited to partner in advancing NFTs further into the mainstream, creating and curating exclusive Moments and content with Top Shot.”
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The Dapper partnership follows Boardroom’s early commitment to covering trading cards, collectibles, and the burgeoning non-fungible token industry, including collaborations with and editorial coverage for the biggest and most buzzworthy collectors in the industry. As part of the partnership with Dapper, fans will receive not just news and features on NBA Top Shot, but giveaways, spotlights around key moments, and fan-to-fan trading, behind-the-scenes video content, and traditional sponsorship elements with the groundbreaking NFT platform.
In September, Dapper Labs announced a new $250 million funding round at a $7.6 billion valuation, according to a source close to the company, as well as a new NFT partnership with LaLiga. That valuation came before Dapper announced a separate pact with the NFL and NFLPA that will bring Top Shot-style Moments to America’s most popular sports league via its Flow blockchain.
“Thirty Five Ventures has been supporters of and investors in Dapper Labs for some time,” said Thirty Five Ventures and Boardroom co-founder and CEO Rich Kleiman, “and we’re thrilled for the opportunity to further partner with them and expand our coverage of NBA Top Shot across all of Boardroom’s properties.”
Leading up to the tip-off of the NBA’s 75th season on Oct. 19, Top Shot is listening to calls to make legendary Moments available for fans to take anywhere on the chain, with more Moments to come. Top Shot will also release Dwyane Wade’s first Run it Back Moments from the 2005-06 season, as well as a Rare Run it Back Drop. Coverage of these Dapper Lab announcements, as well as other exclusive content, will live on Boardroom’s platform as part of the partnership.
“From the moment we met with Kevin and Rich, it was clear that we shared a passion to bring fans closer than ever and in the most epic ways to their favorite athletes,” Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou said. “As KD continues to put his stamp on game-changing moments, we’re able to offer fans access to him in entirely new ways and cement NBA Top Shot’s place at the center of the fan experience.”
