The recent announcement of a multiyear partnership between the Red Bull Formula One Racing team and Mysten Labs-backed Sui network has sparked excitement in the world of blockchain and sports alike. The deal sees Web-3 focused software company Mysten Labs and its Layer 1 blockchain and smart contract platform, Sui, become the team’s official blockchain partners, following an extensive market analysis by Oracle Red Bull Racing to find a suitable partner.
The collaboration seeks to empower race fans to engage in novel ways by offering a range of globally available digital experiences through blockchain technology. Greg Siourounis, Managing Director of the Sui Foundation, highlighted how web3 enables human connections with this partnership, while Evan Cheng, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mysten Labs, emphasized the potential of blockchain technology to fundamentally change how humans transact, interact and communicate.
Oracle Red Bull Racing has been an early adopter of blockchain in the Formula 1 world, understanding its potential in connecting fans globally. In February 2022, the team signed a $150 million sponsorship agreement with crypto exchange Bybit – the largest sponsorship agreement on a per-year basis for a crypto company in sports. Under the agreement, Bybit became the Issuance Partner for the racing team’s fan tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), while also being designated as a Principal Team Partner and Tech Incubator Partner.
Sui is a designated Proof-of-Stake (dPoS) blockchain that utilizes a modified version of the Move programming language, initially created at Meta (formerly Facebook) before the social media giant stepped back from its Diem project. The Sui team launched its mainnet in May this year. While the price of SUI, Sui’s native token, was down nearly 1% today, other major cryptocurrencies like BTC and ETH were seeing gains at the time of writing.
Although the Sui-Red Bull partnership may receive mixed reactions, with some welcoming the alliance and others questioning the need for such collaborations, the underlying message remains the same – blockchain technology is finding its way to various sectors, including sports, and its potential to revolutionize traditional industry practices is undeniable. As more and more companies and organizations like Oracle Red Bull Racing embrace this new technology, it will be interesting to see how blockchain and crypto continue to reshape and redefine the sports industry.
Source: Cryptonews
