OneFootball Closes $300M Funding Round Led by Liberty City Ventures

Soccer-focused media platform OneFootball raised $300 million in a series D funding round that was led by blockchain fund Liberty City Ventures as the company looks to grow in the Web 3 sector.

• The money raised will support continued expansion for the Berlin-based company as well as the new OneFootball Labs – a joint venture with Liberty City Ventures and Hong Kong-based gaming platform Animoca Brands, the company said on Thursday. As part of the deal, Animoca Brands co-founder and Executive Chairman Yat Siu will join the boards of both OneFootball and OneFootball Labs
• OneFootball Labs aims to enable soccer clubs, leagues, federations and players to create new digital fan experiences on a blockchain.
• Other investors in this funding round included Dapper Labs, German investment company DAH Beteiligungs, Quiet Capital, RIT Capital Partners, as well as Animoca Brands, among others.
• “The potential of introducing more than 100 million users to relevant NFTs for the first time has the potential to be truly groundbreaking,” said Mik Naayem, co-founder and chief business officer of Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot, a popular set of digital collectibles. “We see this as a catalyst for mass scale Web 3 adoption for the whole industry.”
• OneFootball is not the only sports brand that has been making strides into Web 3. Adidas teased in November about a partnership with The Sandbox metaverse, and Nike late last year purchased RTFKT, an NFT (non-fungible token) fashion collectibles startup targeting the virtual world. Also late in 2021, Premier League champion Manchester City said it was teaming up with Sony to launch a metaverse that mimics Etihad Stadium, its home stadium.