Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment announces fantasy football league

Mike Crawford, Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Company CEO, joined Yahoo Finance to discuss launching a new fantasy league and cashing in on the NFT craze with a partnership with Dolphin Entertainment.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment signing a partnership with Dolphin Entertainment to begin offering NFTs, Non-Fungible Tokens, if you don't know what that stands for. But let's bring in Mike Crawford. He's the Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Company's CEO.

And Mike, it's great to have you on Yahoo Finance. So you're jumping into the NFT craze. It's something that's certainly getting a ton of attention lately. What do you have planned-- we'll talk about why you're doing this in a second. But first, what do you have planned for your first couple of NFT offerings?

MIKE CRAWFORD: Well, first of all, you've got to be in a space where guests are wanting you to be. And we're a sports and entertainment company. And having the content and the access to brand partnerships that we have, we realized pretty quickly that we could bring a lot of stories to life in ways that no other company could.

And so we signed a deal. And in fact, I'm pleased to announce that that deal has been completed with a group called Elite Holdings. They represent the 10 gentlemen to ever win a Heisman Trophy and also be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, some of the best players to ever play the game of football. And we're going to engage with Dolphin and have, you know, the artists in place and the programming in place to launch this program pretty quickly.

But beyond that, you know, we have content that is really robust. We have access to content in our Pro Football Hall of Fame, things that people have never seen before. We have content that we're building, like we just launched our Hall of Fantasy League today, a great new fantasy opportunity for people to experience transforming fantasy from an individual space into a team sport, if you will.

And so we have the ability to create non-fungible tokens around that space. And those-- those are all going to be very meaningful for us as a company. And the great thing about this space is the barrier to entry is pretty low, and the ability to get content into the hands of the fans and the consumers can go very quickly.

ADAM SHAPIRO: But let's-- help us understand why anybody would want-- I'm going to use this example. Got a Joe Namath-- say you got a Joe Namath jersey inside the Hall of Fame. You guys take a digital photo. You sell the NFT. Why does someone buy the token? Wouldn't they want the jersey?

Because I got the token, but what am I going to do with it? I can't pull it out to show my friends. I can't license it. What do I do with it? I've just spent whatever I've spent to get it, and I can't do nothing with it.

MIKE CRAWFORD: Well, I'll come-- I'll start with the last question. I think, absolutely, as these types of industries develop, you're always going to have the ability to then grow ancillary businesses. So the-- the way in which you show it, the way in which you portray it or display it, if you will, there's going to be businesses that grow off of this.

The reality of this is it's not about the jersey picture. It's about the story that you can tell digitally around that jersey. So you can bring-- in your example, you could bring Joe to life. Joe could be playing in a one of a kind digital format in the background or in the forefront of that jersey, and then you could have an opportunity to actually meet Joe and have him tell you that story of that digital depiction of that particular moment of him winning that Super Bowl.

ADAM SHAPIRO: But--

MIKE CRAWFORD: That's--

ADAM SHAPIRO: --let me interrupt you.

MIKE CRAWFORD: --a one of a-- sure.

ADAM SHAPIRO: You're selling something then that's not necessarily just an NFT. You're selling, also, the experience of I then get to personally talk to Joe Namath. Because a lot of NFT, like this guy who spent the $69 million for the art, I don't think they're talking to the artist. And I don't think anybody's going to pay $69 million, as much as people may love Joe Namath, for a Joe Namath jersey digital photo.

MIKE CRAWFORD: Well, I think you're hitting upon, though, what we have the ability to do, which is we have access to those content and those relationships in professional football that allow us to create unique product. No matter where we're entering into the space, and NFTs, I get really excited about, because if you think about those 10 guys that have won the Heisman Trophy and also been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the stories they have to tell and the way in which we can digitally bring those to life and then have an ability to interact with them, that's really unique. And that's a one of a kind piece that no one else can create.

SEANA SMITH: Well, Mike, talking about giving you the edge here, I know you also-- you briefly mentioned it earlier, but the fantasy league that you announced today, how does that differ from those traditional fantasy leagues out there? And I guess, what do you see as the growth potential there?

MIKE CRAWFORD: This fantasy league really represents everything that we can bring to bear as a company. But when you think about fantasy, it's a multibillion dollar industry, right. But it's an industry that you play by yourself with some friends or family. And so I pick my own team, and then others pick their own team. We go on to a platform, and we throw in some money and we-- whoever wins, wins.

People love being a part of a community. This is the NFL model. We have developed franchises now that people can stake through our partnership with StakeKings. They can go online. They can buy merchandise. They can cheer for their team.

We'll have front offices. Those front offices will have, potentially, Hall of Famers, potentially NFL celebrity alumni, certainly professional fantasy players directing their team, just like a general manager or a president of a franchise or a coach would. And to have the ability to interact with those, to learn from those individuals, to have the opportunity to sort of trash talk a little bit the other teams, this is a league now. So these teams can play each other.

And by the way, when teams can play each other, you know what else can happen? You can place bets on those games, and so sports betting comes into play. You can have a live draft. You can sell merchandise. The synergy opportunity that we can create through our business verticals, gaming, destination-based assets, and media, is really phenomenal.

And we're so proud to launch this league. Just with the teams and-- we had to close down staking today two times, because the teams were being staked so quickly, we wanted to make sure that we were balancing how this would work. And so we've reopened staking, but it just shows you the--

ADAM SHAPIRO: Hey, Mike.

MIKE CRAWFORD: --popularity-- hungry-- the hunger for these kinds of environments.

ADAM SHAPIRO: And we should point out, too, there's the more traditional you guys have built that resort in conjunction with the Hall of Fame. So if you go to Canton, there's a lot to do. By the way, there's a great auto museum in Canton but-- regarding the Hall of Fame. NFL owners, it was expected, they did it, 17-game season this year. What kind of impact do you think that's going to have on just the excitement about your business?

MIKE CRAWFORD: Look, we're powered by professional football. Everything the NFL does, it is the most viewed sports league out there, the most profitable. Certainly, they bring the preseason kickoff game here. We're going to host the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys.

We're going to enshrine eight of those franchise players that have played the greatest they've ever played for those teams. And they're going to be in our Hall of Fame this year. Everything the NFL does, we like to be a part of it or we like to have the opportunity to connect with it, because we're a company powered by professional football.

SEANA SMITH: Mike Crawford, Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Company's CEO. Thanks so much for taking the time to join us today. We wish you all the best.