Entain’s Australian division has released a collection of horse racing NFTs in partnership with the Moonee Valley Racing Club to celebrate the upcoming centenary of the Ladbrokes Cox Plate Carnival in October.
The selection of NFT digital collectibles contains unique artworks highlighting past winning horses spanning the history of the Cox Plate race, while collectors will also receive redeemable real-world experiences including tickets, events and memorabilia.
Example experiences include invitations to a Ladbrokes Cox Plate Centenary Celebration event, track walks with former Cox Plate winners, tickets to the 2022 Cox Plate Day and more.Ladbrokes was first announced as the naming rights sponsor of the Cox Plate in 2017, in an eight-year partnership deal with Moonee Valley Racing Club. The agreement also included naming rights to Friday night racing at Moonee Valley, now known as Ladbrokes Friday Night Lights.
NFTs in the collection are minted on the Solana blockchain, which Entain said it selected due to its efficiency and low environmental impact.
The collection is only available to Australian residents at this time.
Once purchased, owners of the collectibles will also be able to resell the assets on Mooney Valley’s NFT marketplace.
The collection is split into ‘Heroic’, ‘Champion’ and ‘Legendary’ categories. Currently, NFTs in the ‘Heroic’ category start from A$86. ‘Legendary’ NFTs in the collection go for up to A$1,473.At the time of writing, there are currently 323 remaining NFTs available.
The collection is one of the first projects to be launched from Entain’s Ennovate Labs.
When launching the innovation hub in January, the operator promised to spend £100m on Ennovate to explore metaverse entertainment projects in collaboration with leading technology companies.Its very first project was unveiled on 31 January by partypoker, which Entain said would go live with an NFT collection to showcase some of the most iconic moments and tournament hands in the history of the brand.
Alongside the launch of Ennovate, Entain CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen said: “We want to lead the way with new, exciting products and experiences for customers and use our cutting-edge technology to pioneer innovations in sport, gaming and interactive entertainment for the metaverse.
“We also want to use our position as a global technology leader to help drive innovation more widely. Working with partners around the globe, Ennovate will demonstrate how Entain’s industry-leading technology can both revolutionise experiences for consumers and deliver real benefits to society,” she added.