Tag Archives: blockchain

Iconic Sports Pop Culture Artist Costacos Unveils New Blockchain-based Digital Collectibles Company

Iconic, award-winning pop culture artist John Costacos, who established a genre of sports art with his famed sports personality poster creations, along with co-founder and CEO Justin Moorad and Digital Art Director Mike Campau, today unveiled a new blockchain-based digital collectibles company, the Costacos Collection.

The Costacos Collection is partnering with an initial lineup of legendary NFL, MLB, and NBA players and their charitable foundations, including Warren Moon, Troy Aikman, Pudge Rodriguez, Jim McMahon, Roger Clemens, Will Clark, and others to be announced in the coming weeks. The Costacos Collection – the predecessor of which sold over 30,000,000 posters from 1986-96 – utilizes the blockchain medium to help the world’s greatest athletes capture their most significant moments, tell their most meaningful stories, and create new digital experiences to connect with fan communities. In addition to re-imagining John’s revered poster art, the Costacos Collection is creating new digital art as NFTs, with the tokens serving as the ticket to the company’s upcoming Hall of Fame Metaverse.

The Topps Company will also be a partner of the Collection, drawing on content from its vast historical archives and working with Costacos to create new content with Topps’ current-athlete partners.

CostacosCollection.com will serve as the gateway to the company’s listings as well as post-sale experiences, which will include communities and experiences exclusive to NFT owners. The company plans to fill the gap where Big Tech’s social media has failed: enabling fans to connect with and support their heroes directly. Through community engagement features, museum-style social displays, games, raffles and giveaways, trading and staking based on live and AI-generated sporting events, and the bridging of the digital with physical items and events, the company is pursuing a vision not held back by any one particular partnership or association.

“We believe in the long-term power of the technology,” said CEO Justin Moorad. “With a chain-agnostic approach, we’re able to form partnerships across the ecosystem – from the highest-quality art minted securely on Ethereum, to games built on Solana, to opportunities for proprietary fungible tokens, the Costacos Collection is building technology that positions our athletes at the center of the evolving landscape.”

John Costacos’ posters included imagery, slogans, and nicknames that stuck with players for the rest of their careers, including his first poster, Kenny Easley’s “The Enforcer,” the Oakland A’s “Bash Brothers,” Charles Barkley’s “Get Off My Backboard,” Jerry Rice’s “Goldfingers,” Michael Jordan’s “Space, The Final Frontier,” Joe Montana’s “The Golden Great,” Jim McMahon’s “Mad Mac,” Walter Payton’s “Chicago Vice,” Rickey Henderson’s “Man of Steal,” Troy Aikman’s “Strong Arm of the Law,” and many others with athletes such as Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Ken Griffey Jr., Bo Jackson, John Elway, Dominique Wilkins, and Magic Johnson. In addition to working with legacy athletes, Costacos will create new digital artwork with a growing number of today’s future Hall of Famers, Rookies of the Year, and Heisman-level college athletes.

“As an athlete of color and an entrepreneur, and as someone with roots in Seattle personally and professionally, nothing exuded cool more than a Costacos poster,” said Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon. “The Costacos Collection will now be able to recapture that cool in digital art, which is going to be fun for all the veteran athletes from all sports who became part of his ‘must have collection’ as well as for a new generation who will be engaging with this unique artwork for the first time. It’s an honor to be part of this unveiling.”

“My relationship with every athlete came from listening to their creative process and thinking of what we, as fans, would want to see, and that process has never really changed over the years,” Costacos said. “The growth of digital technology gives us an exciting chance not just to offer pieces in digital form, but to take them and retell the story with the athlete’s input now 20 years later, along with all-new digital art pieces.”

“John Costacos and his artwork helped expand the reach of the most legendary athletes of a generation to fans who knew us for being in unique artwork sometimes more than what we did on the field,” said Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez. “Now being able to revisit that artwork as NFTs will open new doors for fans who can collect the pieces yet again. I know for the LatinX audience that craves connecting with its heroes, this will be a fun and unique experience that should open more opportunities for NFTs as well.”

CryptoCasino.com Launches on the FunFair Blockchain Platform

FunFair Technologies Logo

CryptoCasino.com, managed by affiliate RakeTheRake, has today launched as a licensed white label on FunFair Technologies’ leading blockchain casino platform.

FunFair’s first external white label, CryptoCasino.com is now well set to tap into the rapidly growing millennial blockchain casino audience. The sector has already seen the equivalent of a billion dollars wagered in 2019 alone.

The sought-after brand will also gain instant access to FunFair’s audience of 65,000 FUN token holders, along with its own vast player base cultivated over years of running its world-leading affiliate program.

Crypto Casino is RakeTheRake’s first foray into both the online casino space and blockchain, demonstrating how FunFair’s low-cost, easy-to-integrate platform can offer those, who may have previously been deterred, to launch a successful casino operation.

Showcasing FunFair’s proprietary Guaranteed Fair technology and a burgeoning games portfolio that rivals traditional offerings, CryptoCasino, is set to further raise the standard of blockchain gaming.

Karim Wilkins, Founder and CEO at RakeTheRake, said: “Becoming FunFair’s first white label with Crypto Casino gives us great satisfaction. We’re extremely confident in our brand, the platform and the innovative affiliate technology, and we can’t wait to take CryptoCasino and its players to the moon.”

Jez San, Co-Founder at FunFair, said: “Crypto Casino’s launch is a major landmark on the FunFair roadmap and we’re excited to partner with expert marketeers in RakeTheRake who will drive further adoption to our gaming ecosystem.

“We continue to update our platform to ensure it’s as user-friendly for those with and without crypto knowledge and working on the next steps with RakeTheRake and its Crypto Casino players will confirm our position as the leading blockchain gaming provider.”

Cryptocasino.com is now live and available to play at those in accepted countries, with a limited time sign up offer of $60’s worth of FUN available to new players to celebrate the launch.

Unikrn Launches Streamer Betting and Virtual Matches

Unikrn, a global leader at the intersection of blockchain, entertainment and wagering, has created a new technology moat offering instantly available betting experiences for esports and gaming fans.

Built on game analytics, new AI trading bots & screen-analyzing technology, streamer betting is a nonstop, fully automated future of casual wagering. Unikrn will also launch Unikrn Virtual, letting bettors pick from over half a million fresh esports rounds per year.

Together with Unikrn UMode, a player-vs-house skill betting platform for online gameplay, Unikrn is launching unprecedented accessibility for entertainment, skill-based and esports-based wagers every minute of every day.

Unikrn Virtual is a regulator-approved RNG game which uses an approved third-party to randomly generate a round of CS:GO from a curated pool of past professional matches, giving fans the thrill of betting on live esports match without delays or waits. A unique algorithm utilizing both archival and display techniques developed by Unikrn gives users access to key information about an upcoming round of CS:GO, then they may bet on the outcome.

Unikrn users can also exchange currencies, crypto or even digital items (called skins) into regulator-approved ERC20 betting tokens called UnikoinGold. Users can also deposit with traditional means such as credit card.

Eligible bettors can then use the groundbreaking new Unikrn Virtual to find an esports bet offered every minute, even when no events are live. Or they can bet on top streamers. Or they can even bet on themselves in a skill-based UMode proposition, which is even legally available in the United States.

In 2018, Unikrn became the first company to have live, IOM regulator-approved crypto wagering experiences, and as the company continues to expand uses, it projects a crypto resurgence as token value shifts from perception to function.

“Highly-regulated environments, including betting, are the perfect breeding pool for the normalization of mainstream blockchain,” said Andrew Vouris, Unikrn COO, “Using tools from blockchain has helped us develop a system years ahead of other operators, and we’re committed to taking the best ideas of crypto and giving them application.”

Now Unikrn users can parlay a professional esports match and their favorite Twitch streamers, even all in one multibet, and they can make deposits to a currency-agnostic blockchain-based system.

Last year, over 1000 millennia of viewer time were spent watching Twitch alone, making the process of setting odds both daunting and essential for the future of the wagering industry. Unikrn’s streamer betting will tap one of Earth’s most abundant sources of entertainment as an unending flood of engaging wagering content.

“Finding a zero-friction way to let fans engage is essential for the future of betting and crypto,” said Rahul Sood, Unikrn CEO, “You can bet on your own online matches, you can bet on your favorite streamers, or you can find 24/7 esports odds with Unikrn Virtual. This is a level of interactivity only dreamed of in the old world of sports and casino betting.”

Crypto Boxers Debut New Logo, Website, TKO Game Plan

Crypto Boxers, the first and only boxing game operating on blockchain technology, continues to make strategic moves around the virtual ropes. Concept creator Andrew Gilliam, founder and CEO of Me N’ Mines Media, has come out swinging with a defiant new logo; a new website (http://cryptoboxers.io/), designed by independent game development studio, PlayStakes; and a TKO game plan to bring “real boxing to the blockchain.” Pushing the technology envelope beyond what is currently available in the crypto gaming space, Crypto Boxers has gamers in feverish anticipation as it will feature real life boxers as collectible tokens for the virtual fighting action on Ethereum.

Crypto Boxers’ new logo now promotes the player as the ultimate crypto contender, switching the emphasis off the professional boxers and over to the gamer. The dynamic new website provides a preview into Crypto Boxers’ fully immersive, user friendly world where gamers will experience a fantasy boxing arena and engage in an interactive “gloves on” ring experience with the boxer of their choice.

“They said it couldn’t be done but we are doing it,” reveals Gilliam. “After 459 rejections, I now have major commitments, partners and growing interest from professional boxers who are calling us now.  We are the first professional sports game on blockchain, and we plan to go every round!  The logo and website are just a teaser of what is yet to come.”

Round4RoundBoxingLatinoAthleteFightTyme, and RichPlaceMedia are the first official partners to be announced by Crypto Boxers.   Crypto Boxers will be releasing the names of confirmed professional boxers, boxing officials and judges that will be in the game soon. Some of the current talks with professional boxers include legendary champs like Evander Holyfield, Larry Holmes, Michael Spinks and Antonio Tarver, along with currently active champs Terrance Crawford and female boxer Christina Hammer