The year is 2021. The pandemic is slowing, sports are coming back to life, and society as a whole is jumping into action after a year of isolation and confusion.
Legal sports betting and cryptocurrency were two of the most prolific trends to gain momentum coming out of the pandemic, and DraftKings tried to take advantage of that with the launch of Reignmakers in March 2022. Steve Aoki helped the sports betting giant market the venture that allowed users to compile NFTs of a given athlete to enter into fantasy sports contests.
That was then, and this is now.
“After careful consideration, DraftKings has decided to discontinue Reignmakers and our NFT Marketplace, effective immediately, due to recent legal developments,” the company said in a statement Tuesday. “This decision was not made lightly, and we believe it is the right course of action.”
Earlier this year, DraftKings got hit with a class action lawsuit from buyers of its NFTs alleging its NFT sales violated securities laws, according to Coindesk. A U.S. judge in DraftKings’ home state of Massachusetts denied a motion to dismiss this suit too, which paves the way for a future trial about NFTs as securities.
What's next?
Reignmakers digital game pieces will no longer be tradeable on DraftKings and will have no utility for playing in fantasy-style contests since no more contests will run.
Holders of Reignmakers digital game pieces can receive cash payments in exchange for their remaining game pieces, but the amounts of those payments will be based on factors that include, but are not limited to, the relative size and quality of each particular game piece collection.
Exchanges for cash payments will begin this week (subject to certain conditions). As of July 30, all NFT listings and Reignmakers contests were canceled.
