Fan Controlled Football, a Los Angeles CA-based company professional sports league that empowers fans to make key decisions for their favorite team, raised $40M in Series A funding.
The round was led by Animoca Brands and Delphi Digital with participation from Gemini Frontier Fund, 6th Man Ventures, Jump Crypto, Red Beard Ventures, Spartan Capital, NGC Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Talis Capital, Verizon Ventures, Correlation Ventures, and Basecamp Fund.
The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its business reach.
Led by CEO Sohrob Farudi, Fan Controlled Football is a professional sports league empowering fans to call the shots, from branding and personnel decisions to real-time play calling. The company made its debut in February 2021, featuring four teams owned by some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment including Marshawn Lynch, Quavo, Richard Sherman, Austin Ekeler, Dalvin Cook, and Bob Menery. The league combines live sports, engagement of fantasy sports, and interactivity of video games into a live streamed, leaned-in fan experience. Built for the digital fan, FCF’s games are played in a multi-purpose studio arena in Atlanta, and streamed live on Twitch, NBCLX, Peacock, and DAZN. Season v1.0 saw FCF become a fast growing live sports channel on Twitch with nearly 10 million total live views, and one of the top sports Apps in the Apple App Store.
The four original FCF teams include the Beasts, Glacier Boyz, Wild Aces, and Zappers. On March 20, the Wild Aces went on to become the first-ever FCF Champions, after defeating the Glacier Boyz in “The People’s Championship” on a last second, walk-off QB read-option touchdown called by the fans.
The company also announced two new NFT-governed expansion teams, owned by leaders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Gutter Cat Gang communities, respectively. The two new teams join the first two FCF Ballerz Collective NFT expansion teams that were recently announced, doubling the size of FCF for Season v2.0 from four teams to eight.
The four new teams will all be part of FCF’s innovative Ballerz Collective, an NFT community that will provide fans holding FCF Ballerz NFTs with team governance rights, play-to-earn game mechanics, and unique IRL utility and VIP experiences at FCF’s soon to be revealed state-of-the-art venue in Atlanta, GA. The Ballerz Collective NFT teams include:
- The Gutter Cat Gang community team led by King BlackBored, Dr. Dicatrio, Vivek Ravishanker, SpottieWiFi, and former NFL legend Jamal Anderson.
- The Bored Ape Yacht Club community with team ownership featuring TropoFarmer, Josh Ong, Jerseyborn, Franklin, Lindsey Byrnes, BenJammin, NFTsAnonymous, Jeff Nicholas, and Spr3adsh33t.
- Knights of Degen led by their founders and community members, which include NFL legends Tiki and Ronde Barber, Jerry Ferrara, Cynthia Frelund from NFL Network, Jasmine Maietta from Round21, Drew Austin, and more.
- Team 8OKI, led by two highly recognized blockchain advocates – famed musician and producer Steve Aoki, and 888, legendary collector and founder of 888 Inner Circle and 888 The New World whose mission is to empower artists, creators and the digital art community.
NFT owners in each of these communities will be provided an opportunity to receive one of two thousand free FCF Ballerz NFTs for their team, as well as early access to purchase a FCF Baller at a fifty percent discount to the public sale price.
The upcoming nine-week season will kick off on April 16, 2022 with eight teams stacked with pro-caliber players from the NFL, CFL, and NCAA programs.
FinSMEs
14/01/2022