Former Brazilian footballer combines Brazilian football and NFTs at the youth level. As our guest, Bruno Pessoa says, “football is like religion” in Brazil. So enabling the connection between fans and players makes so much sense with new Web3 technology like NFTs.

What if we told you there’s a digital way of investing in young Brazilian footballers that gives you access and possible upside? Blockchain technology meets footballer, entrepreneur, and Web3 enthusiast Bruno Pessoa.

This new age of collectibles is bringing fans and players closer than ever before. In this episode of Sports Bring People Together, host Eric Kasimov chats with Bruno Pessoa, a former Brazilian footballer for Flamengo and a youth sports enthusiast. Bruno is a lifelong football fan (soccer fan) who turned his passion for football into a successful business. He works with youth athletes, specifically, the top football players in Brazil, skyrocketing their player brand and generating new revenue streams for both the players and their fans — through NFTs.

By collecting these “packs” (cards) (NFTs), verifiable owners (on the blockchain) will have opportunities to interact with the players and gain access (tickets) to special games or events like the FIFA World Cup. And any NFT has the potential for upside–just imagine owning a Ronaldo NFT when he was a young teenager?!

What drove Bruno to lean into this idea of combining youth Brazilian football and NFTs? During his time playing the game, Bruno saw young athletes often struggle with generating income and feel powerless to make their own decisions off the pitch. This inspired him to found Next Level Sports (now Next Academy) with the goal to generate opportunities for young Brazilian football players. After granting 1,500 plus kids the opportunity to receive sports scholarships in the US, Bruno sold his first business. His latest venture, Tero Labs, recently announced its first proprietary IP called Rough Diamonds which provides footballers under the age of 21 with revenue-based opportunities — while giving owners of the NFTs fan-based experiences and more.

As collectibles join the digital space, fans are being presented with new opportunities to invest in young talent. With Rough Diamonds, football fans (soccer) are able to purchase memorabilia and personalized experiences from young Brazilian talent – they selected the top 11 up-and-coming football players from Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of talent in the sport, to create their exclusive NFTs. Most recently, Tero Labs has signed a collaboration agreement with Crypto.com NFT to work together on Rough Diamonds, and jointly develop an exclusive football jersey in the form of an exclusive NFT collection for the Rough Diamonds team.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• World Cup 2022
  
• Brazil’s World Cup chances
  
• Goalkeeper mentality
  
• Licensing player brand
  
• Helping youth players generate new revenue streams through NFTs
  
• How does the new age of collectibles bring players and fans closer
  
• Soccer in the US vs traditional sports and Major League Soccer (MLS)
  

In case you haven’t noticed, we love podcasts. In fact, we love building podcasts. Everything from development to production. Because of all that, we’re building a one-of-a-kind podcast network. If you have a podcast or are looking to launch a new podcast then we should talk. You can message me on Twitter @eric_kaz or hit us up any way that works for you. Let’s talk about your podcast joining this one-of-a-kind podcast network. 

Rough Diamonds: site and discord

Tero Labs & Bruno Pessoa: LinkedIn

Tero Labs is a unique NFT studio where they develop proprietary IPs in Sports, Media, and Entertainment. They believe Blockchain-enabled models will present a seismic shift to how business is conducted in the future. Its impact on commerce will be game-changing.

Bruno is a second-time entrepreneur having successfully exited his first venture in Brazil. He holds a Marketing degree from Fresno Pacific University. With over ten years of experience in the sports market in Latin America, he has gone through all stages of a company – from ideation, through fundraising, scaling, and exiting. Bruno helped his companies close deals with Adidas, LaLiga, Crypto.com, Onefootball, and others.

Web3 is happening so fast—or at least that’s what it seems like. In actuality, there is time—a lot of time. It’s very early in the Web3 world. It’s also very confusing (maybe because there are so many buzzwords or maybe it’s because there are a lot of people promising a bright future). I’d say it’s best to talk to those in the space. And that’s where this Web3 dialogue (podcast series) is coming from. It’s an opportunity to share space with those that have experience, stories, and proof of concept related to all things Web3. This episode just so happens to connect footballers and NFTs.

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Websites you should definitely check out:

• SportsE+
  
• KazCM Podcast Production
  

More content related to Web3 sports:

• The Sports Metaverse | SimWin Sports CMO, Tom Goedde
  
• The Collectibles Market Size Is $402 Billion! | + Crypto and Cultural Assets
  
• NFT Player Cards with DPC Labs Founder, Daniel Pardo
  

Meet you on social media:

• SportsE+: Twitter, Instagram, TikTok
  
• Eric Kasimov: Twitter, LinkedIn
  

That’s a wrap:

• Thank you for listening to this episode on SportsE+ titled, “Brazilian Football and NFTs | Bruno Pessoa”.
  
• Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts
  
• Follow this podcast on Spotify
  
• Intro Music, “escape” was provided by Pluto Tracks.
  
• Check out more from our content platform: SportsE+. A digital media brand where the content = sports + entrepreneurship + web3.
  

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