Sports betting powerhouse DraftKings (DKNG) is partnering with digital asset startup Zero Hash to become a Polygon validator.
The company announced Monday the collaboration will make DraftKings one of the Ethereum layer 2’s largest governors, following through on a plan that has been in the works since October.
“Participating in validation supports DraftKings’ broader strategy of building out a robust, sustainable, trustworthy and decentralized infrastructure to help future-proof aspects of our business in the Web 3 era,” Paul Liberman, the company’s global tech and product president, said in a statement.
DraftKings currently uses Polygon for its non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, which the company debuted in August in a collaboration with Tom Brady’s Autograph platform, which is also built on Polygon.
Polygon has become something of a hotbed for sports collectible platforms in pursuit of low-fee, fiat-compatible marketplaces. In addition to Autograph, the blockchain is home to the National Football League’s ticket collectible experiment along with OneOf’s sports marketplace launched in partnership with Sports Illustrated.
Since its debut, DraftKings’ marketplace has released 116 NFT collections grossing $44 million in sales revenue, according to a representative. The platform’s top sale was a rare Tiger Woods collectible, bought for $70,000 in October.
Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot, by comparison, saw $47.5 million in sales volume in February, which was down 20% from its previous month and 80% from its all-time monthly volume high of $224 million in February 2021.
DraftKings, valued at nearly $20 billion on the public market, was today downgraded from “buy” to “hold” by investment firm Argus, forecasting a downturn in sports betting revenue for the coming year.
Zero Hash, the business-to-business service tapped by DraftKings, helps integrate crypto and non-fungible tokens into its clients’ platforms. The company raised a $105 million Series D in January.
