The 66th Ballon d’Or, created by France Football in 1956 and owned by the L’Équipe group, will be awarded at the Châtelet theater on October 17, during a ceremony broadcast in nearly 200 countries. This is an opportunity for L’Équipe to announce its entry into the world of Web3, with the first NFT Ballon d’Or collection.
A year marked by renewal
2022 is the year of novelty for the world’s most famous and coveted sporting trophy. The number of voters has been reduced to the top 100 countries in the FIFA index, and jurors will now assess the performance of footballers over a sports season and no longer a calendar year.
It is therefore the ideal context to announce L’Équipe’s plunge into Web 3.0 through an NFT collection based on the trophy that every footballer dreams of winning one day. It’s a new era for the group.
Make accessible the inaccessible
Football and new technology lovers will now be able to hold the prestigious trophy. What was only a dream is now becoming reality. The whole community can thus develop.
Each NFT will have exceptional utilities, including access to the Ballon d’Or award ceremony for 20 years. The enthusiasts of fantasy soccer will not be outdone, with the possibility of obtaining exclusive Sorare Ballon d’Or cards.
This first collection is just the beginning. Indeed, the Ballon d’Or, and more broadly the L’Équipe group and the Amaury group, are now taking a lasting position in the world of Web3.
The artist behind the collection
In recent years, NFTs have revolutionized the sports sector, but also, and above all, the world of art. This is why the Ballon d’Or has decided to project itself into the world of Web3 in collaboration with contemporary artist Léo Caillard, plastic artist graduated from the Ecole des Gobelins and crypto artist member of the NFT Factory collective. He produced the first exclusive collection of the Ballon d’Or with a work around Pyrites, the precious stones of the base of the prestigious trophy.
How does the Ballon d’Or get into Web3?
To transform this trial, the L’Équipe group decided to develop its own tailor-made platform. The community will find the different purchasing modules there and will be able to buy the NFT Ballon d’Or. The platform will be accessible from September 12.
A Discord channel has also been created. The community aspect is a key element of this new era of the Ballon d’Or. The Discord network will be the privileged communication space for everything related to the NFT collection. The launch of Discord Ballon d’Orproduced on August 31, has already met with great success by bringing together members of the football community around the world.
In addition, during the ceremony, each of the five winners will receive the digital double of their NFT trophy (men’s Ballon d’Or, women’s Ballon d’Or, Kopa Trophy, Yachine Trophy, Gerd Müller Trophy).
The chosen technology and CSR issues
The choice fell on Tezos technology for several reasons. It is a dynamic ecosystem concerning NFTs, sports and art. Tezos technology has also been designed to be scalable, which has reduced its carbon footprint by 70% since its creation. The main reason for its low energy consumption is the technical protocol known as proof of stake (PoS) which, unlike the proof of work (PoW) used on Bitcoin, does not involve high electricity consumption linked to the use of thousands of computers to validate transactions. An independent study carried out by the firm PWC has estimated the annual carbon footprint of the entire Tezos network at 0.001 TWh. For comparison, the footprint of the Bitcoin network is estimated at 130 TWh per year.
Another CSR challenge is the societal dimension, with part of the profits going to Fondaction L’Équipe, the solidarity structure of the L’Équipe group.
The calendar
- September 15: “True Pyrite” auction: 3 unique 3D NFTs designated by Léo Caillard will be auctioned to give VIP access to the Trophies ceremony on October 17.
All people who participated in the auction of the 3 Pyrites will have priority for the sale of Pyrite Fragments on October 23 by integrating a whitelist which will allow them to benefit from a preferential rate.
- October 17: digital twin of the trophies: during the October 17 ceremony, each winner will receive a digital duplicate of their trophy, unique in terms of its metadata and permanently anchored on the blockchain.
- October 23: private sale lasting 24 hours: sale to “privileged” members registered on the 1772 NFT whitelist. NFTs will be sold in Tezos for an equivalent of 199 euros. It will be possible to integrate the whitelist via different operations that will take place in the previous weeks.
- October 24: general public drop: a general public sale of “Pyrite Fragments” designated by Léo Caillard which have not found takers among the members of the whitelist, will be put on sale in Tezos for an equivalent of 249 euros. In any event, 100 NFTs will be reserved for sale to the general public.
- November 8: auction of 2 artistic and unique NFTs by Léo Caillard during the traditional auction of single-print art photos by the L’Équipe group with the Millon auction house. These 2 NFTs will give access to the 2023 Ballon d’Or ceremony. An event that will close the first edition of the Ballon d’Or project in the world of Web3 and NFT.
We don’t know about you, but on our side, we are looking forward to what the team will have in store for us in the future. So stay tuned so you don’t miss a thing!
Receive a digest of news in the world of cryptocurrencies by subscribing to our new service of daily and weekly so you don’t miss any of the essential Tremplin.io!
