Cardano has teamed up with Rival – an eSports and gaming platform – to facilitate, create and distribute NFTs showcasing the sport franchises in Rival’s stable.

It’s a significant move for Cardano as it enters an industry with 2.8bn gamers globally, and one that’s becoming increasingly powerful.

The Rival platform contains clients such as English Premier League (EPL) sides Watford and Aston Villa, National Football League’s (NFL) Seattle Seahawks, and the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Detroit Pistons.

Cardano Foundation CEO Frederick Gregaard said its partnership with Rival was a natural step.

“What better way to drive adoption than tapping into a market of 2.8 billion gamers around the world,” he said.

“Gamers are already familiar with tokenisation, with some of the earliest games featuring applications of virtual currency.

“Our partnership with Rival is, in many ways, a natural step.”

Cardano’s major moves

The Cardano Summit 2021 unleashed several major business deals launched alongside its newly-formed partnership with Rival.

Cardano is also set to launch its new stablecoin – Djed – as well as partnering with Chainlink to build smart contracts for DeFi applications.

Coin Rivet spoke recently with the head of communications at Occam.fi – Elliot Hill – on how those moves will benefit Cardano.

Cardano also received a $100m investment from EMURGO – a global technology company and commercial arm of Cardano.