Rumble Kong League’s Club NFTs: The Premier Ownership Opportunity

With RKL Clubs, the opportunity to build a sports entertainment empire has never been more realistic for a new wave of people who share the vision.

Since we first dropped our December article on Clubs and what they will mean to the Rumble Kong League (RKL), the global community has been abuzz and the anticipation has been building for the release of the Club NFTs which will empower their owners with the rights to operate an official RKL Club. Already, in anticipation, clubs are forming, Kongs are getting recruited, and social presences are being built. Shoutout to RumbleClubs for creating the first club database of brands being formed. Now, with the Club auction imminent, it feels like we have a front-row seat for the pregame intros for the ‘96 Chicago Bulls. 

A core tenant of the Web3 movement is thinking and acting like a builder in all market conditions.  Typically, we think of builders as developers laying down code like a painter layering colors on a canvas, however, Clubs open the door for those with different types of building skills to flourish: the business savvy builders. 

We’re talking about those people who get excited about creating memorable brand experiences and those entrepreneurs grinding out their business plans.  The RKL Club builders will be tapping into a passionate sports entertainment community with all the upside that comes along with it.  

For all those savvy business builders out there, today we want to highlight the 8 pillars of Club ownership that provide a massive opportunity for creatively building a brand, and also each pillar represents a unique opportunity around brand notoriety and revenue.  

The vision represented by these pillars is simple: empower Clubs to become the very fabric of the Rumble Kong League itself. To achieve this vision, the RKL will create the technology platform to facilitate Club commerce and gameplay and the Clubs will be free to capitalize on the massive opportunities in front of them.  

The pillars are: 

1. Media Rights

2. Revenue Share

3. League Payouts

4. Custom Arenas

5. Ingame Branding

6. Individual Jerseys

7. Custom Tournaments

8. Integrated Merch Store

The pillars themselves will be put into place over time as the League develops so, in a sense, the 8 of them represent the vision for the coliseum and the building will be constructed as the roadmap unfolds.

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Now let’s explore each pillar and its potential a bit more…

Revenue Share:  As the Club participates in revenue-generating gameplay with its Kongs roster, that revenue can be configured to be split automatically between the Club itself and the Kong holder.  This trustless and automated revenue sharing will be included in the RKL platform as a value to the Club Owners.  Those Club owners are free to negotiate with their Kong holders any arrangements that govern how this revenue share is handled.  In this regard, Club Owners will be acting as (or appointing) their own general managers of their organizations.

League Payouts:  Similar to the above, when the Club participates in official League tournaments there will be prizes and payouts for the winners.  These spoils of victory will be revenue for the Club to handle in any way it chooses.  Some Clubs may choose to reinvest these payouts into their brand, reward their Kong holders, or come up with an entirely new idea on how to leverage these funds.  

Custom Arenas:  If you follow sports then you can’t miss the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and the FTX Arena in Miami.  These naming rights and brand advertising partnerships are massive revenue opportunities for these venues.  In the same manner, virtual arenas for Clubs will be equipped with the ability to be customized with the brand partners of the Club.  Imagine your stadium sponsorship creating a true “home court advantage” for your squad as you battle for League payouts…

Ingame Branding:  In sports entertainment advertising, the dollars follow the eyeballs.  In the RKL, the eyeballs will be on the gameplay and that presents many more opportunities for branding.  While the arena itself will be customized with branding opportunities, don’t forget about elements of the gameplay itself.  Think of examples like the “half time show brought to you by Geico” or the “Adidas Keys to the Game”. 

Individual Jerseys:  Player jerseys provide a path for a unique brand identity for the Club itself and they also represent valuable branding real estate for advertising partners.  The jerseys will be marketed by Clubs in social media, seen in gameplay, and produced as merchandise so there will be plenty of opportunities to show the advertising partners’ value for the money they pay to become part of “the fabric of the Club”.  

Custom Tournaments:  In addition to the official League tournaments themselves, Clubs will have the ability to create and host custom tournaments.  Imagine a Club’s brand partner offering to sponsor an invitational tournament among 64 of the top clubs that mimics the structure and intensity of the March Madness tournament in the NCAA’s.  Think of the kind of brand activation that could be done across media rights, prizes, and ads.  The sky's the limit here.  

Integrated Merch Store:  Anyone who has seen or heard about RKL merch knows that its quality is second to none.  To enable Clubs to offer a core line of merch with high levels of quality and convenience, the RKL platform will also include a UI for offering merch as well as the backend manufacturing and drop shipping resources to deliver on it.  This will help keep Club owners building while their fans are repping their brand.  

Media Rights:  Let’s take a direct definition from a quick Google search as our starting point on this one:  “Broadcasting rights” is the term for the media rights to an intellectual property object sold to a particular broadcasting company. Basically, if a company wants the media rights to a sports organization or a competitive video game, they contact the distributing organization. (source: weplayholding.com)

So in this definition, who might the “company” be that wants to license the media rights?  Could there be some sports entertainment brands on YouTube or Twitch that would love to purchase the media rights held by a Club?  You better believe it.  

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As you can see, these pillars provide a robust set of opportunities for our Club builders to stay very busy harnessing their creativity.  Just like the present-day sports marketing world, a key to success will be the ability to create meaningful relationships with partners and stakeholders that return value to them.  When done well, it’s a win/win/win and it’s a lot of fun.    

Few people in life will ever play a sport at an elite level and even fewer people will be responsible for building the teams that those elite athletes play on.  With RKL Clubs, the opportunity to build a sports entertainment empire has never been more realistic for a new wave of people who share the vision.  

In the years to come, as the builders build, and Clubs are competing at the highest levels, millions of eyeballs will watch to see who will win.  And there will we one thing heard reverberating through the metaverse:  #WEAREKONG.  Let’s get it.