On the Pulse: RugbyDAO's Mission to Make Fans Rugby's Heartbeat ๐
RugbyDAO President Leanne Bats asks, 'What if fans, who often feel disconnected from the sport's decision-making process, could influence rugby's evolution over the next two hundred years?'
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BIG IDEA
Rugby, a sport steeped in history, celebrated its remarkable 200th anniversary last year.
The on-field product has evolved significantly since William Webb Ellis first picked up the ball and ran - just look at the modern-day player and that becomes very clear.
There is a growing sentiment from a number of leading rugby executives who believe that now is the time for a similarly extreme transformation to happen away from the pitch as well.
Drawing inspiration from the successful application of the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) model in other early use cases across sports, such as with Krause House and LinksDAO, The RugbyDAO envisions an opportunity to empower fans to play a pivotal role in shaping the sport's future.
At the core of RugbyDAO's mission lies a compelling question:
What if fans, who often feel disconnected from the sport's decision-making process, could influence rugby's evolution over the next two hundred years?
Spearheaded by President Leanne Bats, who also serves as the Head of Web3 for New Zealand Rugby, they have crafted a unique, trailblazing approachโa sort of social venture studio that encourages community members to propose ideas, whether they are wild concepts, unmet needs, or fervent desires.
Ultimately, the power lies in the hands of the fans; when the community rallies behind an idea, RugbyDAO (will aim to) take decisive action.
While still in its early stages, this has the potential to revolutionise how fans interact with rugby. The process is refreshingly straightforward: fans propose their ideas, and if the community embraces them, RugbyDAO seeks to collaborate with pioneering rugby clubs and federations to turn these concepts into reality.
One exciting example that has emerged from the community involves the creation of special custom kits, leveraging AI to help fans to express their unique ideas visually.
โOne of the guys was playing around in our DAO with concept [rugby] kits [by using various prompts]โ said Bats, who was the most recent guest on the Sports Pundit Podcast. โWe put [them] out and the Super Rugby team Hurricanes came back to us and said, โThese are so awesome, could you create these for us?!โโ
Bats is hoping that this could soon become one of the projectโs first use cases and case studies.
โ[We will] essentially create a platform where fans of The Hurricanes could come in and [prompt an AI tool by asking] to see the Hurricanes jersey influenced by street art or whatever it might be,โ she explained.
While this is only an early example of a fan-driven product, the possibilities are limitless โ especially when you consider the impact that AI can have on democratising the creative process for fans who havenโt previously possessed artistic talents.
Though the idea of creating a DAO is fairly new, and the development of AI has massively accelerated over the past year, the idea of user-generated content (UGC) is almost as old as fandom itself - be it fan-written stories, handmade fan art, or fan-made music.
It has also already wielded some highly valuable outcomes, from the creation of Fifty Shades of Grey (which started out as 'Twilight' fan fiction) to the virtual Japanese idol Hatsune Miku, whose voice has been used in over 100,000 unique songs - and even performed โliveโ concerts to packed out arenas around the world.
Recently, marketeer Zoe Scaman has written expertly on the unprecedented momentum that this concept is currently picking up among brands, suggesting we are on the brink of entering a โthe multiplayer brandโ era, where brands transform into toolkits that empower their fans to actively shape their future product launches and partnerships.
For Bats, this is where the AI and Web3 elements can tie into it, assisting in the co-creation and the co-benefiting, respectively.
โThis phenomenon already happens [in sport], but in an unofficial senseโฆ What we want to do is see if we can actually start making [fan creations into] official and licensed creations that allows fandom [to move] beyond this one-way, passive [transaction] into, โHey, I want to co-create with you [and crucially,] I want to co-benefit with you.โโ
To a large extent, the technology that enables this phenomenon doesnโt matter to the fan (or many people working within sports organisations).
If anything, making Web3 overtly public in the messaging likely creates greater friction in the near-term, due to the close word-association that it has had to crypto and fan tokens, which have burned some fans and clubs over the past 24 months.
This underlying blockchain technology, however, does have an integral part to play in making sure that the fans are part of a system which lets them share their ideas and creations and be fairly rewarded for their contributions - something todayโs UGC does not, for the most part.
If the RugbyDAO can get this across to the fans of the sport (and theyโve already made a good start), they could play an important role in ensuring that fans remain the heartbeat of rugby for the next 200 years.
Itโs an admirable mission and one that I wish them luck on.
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THE PODCAST
Want to hear more from my conversation with Leanne?
We discuss community vs audience, taking inspiration from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, implementing innovation and Web3 projects within a high-profile sports organisation like New Zealand Rugby, founding the internet's coolest climate action corporation, and much much more.
Listen to the full podcast via the link below - and Iโd love to hear what you think!๐
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