Over the last year, poker tours and companies have launched into the world of NFTs. Partypoker now becomes the latest, giving poker fans the chance to own a piece of the site’s history .
For those new to the collectible craze, NFT stands for non-fungible token. They are unique digital files, which can include items such as artwork, music, or videos.
These can also be resold and some are fetching big bucks, depending on rarity. NFTs are a modern twist on the classic sports card and leagues have seen major success by launching their own NFTs.
Partypoker is now teaming up with Theta Labs to offer poker fans a shot to grab some of partypoker’s biggest moments.
“Partypoker has established a history across 20 years full of great hands and epic poker moments that have happened during our live and online events,” partypoker director Vadim Soloveychik said in a news release. “We are happy to give players the opportunity to own their very own piece of poker history in partnership with Theta. I am truly excited for partypoker to join the NFT space.”
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What to expect from partypoker NFTs
Theta Labs already has some experience in the poker NFT market. The company announced a partnership with the World Poker Tour last year.
The World Series of Poker also released a batch of NFTs in 2021. Players themselves, such as Phil Ivey and Antonio Esfandiari, have also released NFTs of their own big moments. Partypoker is now getting in on the act as well.
The party collection showcases iconic moments and tournament hands in the history of partypoker and partypoker LIVE. Some will also feature special PokerApes, a series of high-definition images with a partypoker twist. Some of those will feature full 3D artwork and other unique traits.
Theta Labs is a distributed video delivery pioneer, powered by blockchain technology. Theta provides end-to-end infrastructure for decentralized video and powers NFT and metaverse platforms.
A growing partnership beyond poker
The new deal brings something new to poker NFTs. For the first time, players can view available collectibles from an online poker platform.
The partypoker marketplace will feature primary sales of new NFTs and a secondary marketplace for users to trade. Much of that will be available in the partypoker software client.
The agreement may also move beyond the poker brand. Party is owned by Entain Group, a leading global sports betting, gaming, and interactive entertainment group.
The partypoker launch is the first stage of a wider partnership between Entain and Theta. Plans call for NFTs to be developed for brands across the company, incorporating video streaming, metaverse, games, and more.
Theta is one of the first partners working with Ennovate, an Innovation hub launched by Entain in London. Ennovate will invest up to £100 million in technology projects, including many with UK and global partners. The company has earmarked about £40 million specifically for the UK.
“This is an exciting, new, global collaboration,” Theta Labs CEO Mitch Liu said. “For the first time, we are licensing our integrated white-label NFT platform to one of the world’s largest sports betting, gaming and interactive entertainment groups, and we couldn’t ask for better partners in partypoker and Entain Group.
“Being integrated into the partypoker application enables an NFT user experience as exciting and seamless as possible to customers, powered by Theta Network, Theta edge nodes to support video NFTs and TFUEL for transactions.”
The companies haven’t announced a date yet for the NFT launch, but more details are expected to be released soon.