MatchDay is a Web3 video game startup focused specifically on soccer that has received $21 million in seed funding from Lionel Messi’s venture capital firm to develop a series of NFT card games.
MatchDay received $21 million in seed funding from Play Time, the venture capital firm led by Lionel Messi. This soccer-focused video game startup has already secured official licensing from FIFA and FIFPRO, and is currently developing Web3 games focused on digital collectibles in the form of NFTs.
In addition, MatchDay aims to truly focus on the ownership of digital goals, which is why they have chosen the technology offered by non-fungible tokens, as it provides these features on which they want to base the new soccer game.
On the other hand, the company Play Time Sports-Tech HoldCo LLC of the Argentinean star committed an initial financing of $21 million, but companies such as Courtside Ventures, Greylock, Capricorn Investment Group, HackVC and Horizons Ventures have also participated in this first round.
For her part, MatchDay’s founding global ambassador is Spanish women’s soccer star and current winner of ‘The Best’ award, Alexia Putellas.
The current Paris Saint-Germain FC player and recent world champion with the Argentine national team is not the first time he has been involved in moves involving digital collectibles in the form of non-fungible tokens.
Beyond his role on the field, Messi is a brand ambassador for the renowned fantasy soccer game NFT Sorare and also for the Socios.com fan token platform.
At SorareIn Sorare, it was learned that the striker acquired an equity stake as part of the agreement, but the company did not provide further information on the terms.
With Partners reached a $20 million USD sponsorship contract agreement. Also, it has launched its own official collectibles in NFT format through the Ethernity Chain platform.
About MatchDay
Currently, you can create an account on MatchDay and you will receive an envelope with 5 players, which have rarity characteristics such as: common, limited, rare, legendary and unique.
The objective is to build a team of 11 players respecting their real positions. Besides, you have the possibility of choosing among ten different formations such as 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, among others.
There is also a market to acquire or sell the cards, since the idea is to reach the total number of players on the field that is needed.
On the other hand, there is the Squads section, which is still in beta phase, but it will take you to another tab where if your team is already complete, you can play friendly matches against other users. The match will be paired with another team at random.
MatchDay’s internal marketplace works in a simple way, as it allows you to purchase players by credit or debit card. I, for example, put Uruguayan striker for sale, Edinson Cavaniwho currently plays for Valencia in Spain.
On the other hand, it should be noted that both the first name, last name and photo of the players are real, since MatchDay is officially licensed by FIFA, the most important professional soccer organization, and FIFPRO, the organization that represents 65,000 professional soccer players worldwide.
MatchDay confirmed that during 2023 it will be possible to mint player cards as NFTs. It also advanced that the first blockchain the company will work with is Solana, but they added that they are working hard to be able to provide multi-chain support by the end of the year.
It should be noted that MatchDay’s video game director is Sebastien De HalleuxSebastien De Halleux, a fully qualified professional with proven experience in the field, having been a game editor at Electronic Arts or known by most as EA. He also worked on the FIFA GAME SERIES series of games and on Madden’s NFL franchise..
De Halleux, spoke about the creation of MatchDay and said that the game is created for all real players to focus on the ownership of the digital objects offered by the game, as, they believe, it is the new interest that attracts users.
While it is currently only possible to play 1v1 friendlies between users, MatchDay already launched a limited-time mini-game during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, where it gave out $2 million cards in NFT format to approximately 600,000 users.
Also, they officially announced that there will be news about the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 that will be played from July 20 to August 20 in Australia/New Zealand. Finally, the idea is to prepare a prediction challenge to make the MatchDay experience better and get honest feedback from users to find out what new features they would like to see in the future.
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Written by Rodrigo Catalan (TW: @RodrigoCatalanB) for NFT Express.