DraftKings has announced a collaboration with Deadfellaz, a global NFT ecosystem, ahead of Halloween weekend. They will ‘transform’ 13 professional football players into limited-edition NFT player cards using the Deadfellaz IP, which will be available on the DraftKings Marketplace from October 25.
The NFT collectibles will be playable in ‘Reignmakers Football’ contests, an NFT-based fantasy football game where users can draft line-ups and compete against each other. Players being transformed into ‘Deadfellaz’ include Nick Chubb, Jalen Hurts, Alvin Kamara, Kyler Murray, Deebo Samuel and Matthew Stafford. Additional players will be announced at a later date.
This collaboration comes off the back of an agreement between DraftKings and the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), which was facilitated by OneTeam, a leading NFLPA video games and trading cards business. This agreement gives DraftKings license to use the likeness of active NFL players.
Deadfellaz has become well-known as a Web3 pop culture brand and has gained a substantial following among sports and entertainment fans. Their brand reaches beyond NFL players to celebrities such as Reese Witherspoon and social media entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian.
DraftKings co-founder and President of North America, Matt Kalish, commented: “Deadfellaz have established themselves as one of the most culturally relevant and impactful NFT projects in Web3 to date.
“With this collaboration, we are connecting our communities to create a Reignmakers Football experience with a Deadfellaz twist that we believe you can’t get anywhere else. We are excited for The Horde to experience Reignmakers Football in time for the Halloween weekend’s football matchups.”
Deadfellas co-founders Betty & Psych said they were thrilled to be working with DraftKings on this collection. The pair commented: “We love building bridges from the Web3 space into other communities like fantasy sports fans. This collaboration with Reignmakers provides a strong opportunity to innovate and bring the value of Web3 to the fantasy sports industry.”
