The National Football League Players Association has acquired a minority stake in blockchain startup SportsCastr, to provide both active and former NFL players a way to earn cryptocurrency tokens through live sports color commentating.

SportsCastr is a free platform that invites users to stream live commentary to professional and collegiate sporting events, with built-in engagement tools such real-time statistics, chat functionality, and more. Through the NFL’s OneTeam Collective, a minority stake in SportsCastr was acquired to create a partnership aimed at NFL players providing the color commentary for live sporting events, further driving viewership and awareness of SportsCastr and FanChain.

FanChain (FANZ) is an ERC20-based cryptocurrency token and is the native currency powering the SportsCastr platform. FanChain incentivizes fans to talk about and create content around their favorite teams.

Both users and NFL players alike can earn FanChain tokens that can be used to transact on the platform. Players can earn revenue either through creating content for the platform, or by having fans pay them in FanChain tokens for exclusive content. Users are also able to redeem FanChain tokens for “premium” items such as tickets, merchandise, back-stage access, and more.

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Andrew Schupak, CFO and Head of Strategy at SportsCastr says his company “enables fans to get authentic, real-time reactions and commentary from all sports fans and now, for the first time at scale, professional athletes,” and is “excited to partner with the NFLPA to accelerate adoption and work together to enhance the fan experience.”

Ricky Medina, Senior Manager of Business Development for NFL Players Inc., the licensing and marketing arm of the NFLPA explained why they jumped on the opportunity to provide players with a new revenue stream through SportsCastr:

“Athletes constantly explore ways to build their personal brands and creatively connect with their fans, and SportsCastr’s live-stream capabilities align perfectly with these goals.”

SportsCastr is second-screen companion experience through an iOS app currently in beta. The first batch of NFL players will start using the platform in Q3 2018. An Android version of the app is planned for the first half of 2019.