Avalanche🔺 (@avax): Your favorite sports teams might be using blockchain and you wouldn't know it.

Your favorite sports teams might be using blockchain and you wouldn't know it. Sports organizations are turning to blockchain to cut ticket fraud, reduce fees, and unify fan engagement. Avalanche is emerging as one of the leading solutions powering this transformation. SI Tickets and the Red Bulls Deal (and Tottenham’s New Partnership) In December 2024, the New York Red Bulls and Sports Illustrated Tickets announced a 13-year partnership. The team’s stadium, formerly Red Bull Arena, will be renamed Sports Illustrated Stadium starting in 2026, and SI Tickets will become the official ticketing partner for all events there. At the heart of this partnership is SI Tickets’ Box Office platform, which delivers fast, secure, and fully onchain ticketing for matches, concerts, and other major events on Avalanche. Tottenham Hotspur is the latest global powerhouse to join the SI Tickets ecosystem through a 12-year “Official Fan Experience” agreement. With more than 200 million followers across major social platforms, Tottenham brings one of the world’s largest fan bases onchain. It proves Avalanche’s capacity to power mainstream, high-volume entertainment at scale. Tixbase and the Future of Live Events When fans arrive at Estadio Mariano Rivera this November for the Copa América de Béisbol, the game will have changed before the first pitch is thrown. Entry will be faster, safer, and built entirely on Avalanche. From November 13 to 22, Panama City will host 26 games featuring six national teams, including Puerto Rico, Argentina, Colombia, Canada, Brazil, and Panama. Attendance is expected to exceed 200,000 fans. To power the event at scale, Oaktree International Sports & Entertainment Ventures (OISEV), the official event promoter, selected Tixbase, a next-generation ticketing platform built on Avalanche, as the exclusive ticketing partner for Group B. A New Standard for Fans Traditional ticketing is plagued by fraud, scalping, and long lines. Tixbase solves this with rotating barcodes, mobile-only access, and onchain verification that guarantees every ticket is authentic and traceable. The result is simple: no fake tickets, no last-minute headaches, and no hidden fees. Built on Their Own Avalanche L1 Tixbase is launching its own dedicated Avalanche Layer 1, powered by AvaCloud, purpose-built for ticketing at scale. This chain processes thousands of scans per second, keeps costs predictable, and makes ticket fraud nearly impossible while maintaining a fan-first experience. By running the Copa América de Béisbol on their own Avalanche L1, Tixbase is setting a precedent for how live events can move beyond legacy ticketing systems and into a more transparent, efficient, and fan-centric era. FanHub and the Rise of Fan Loyalty While ticketing redefines access, FanHub is redefining engagement. Built on Avalanche, FanHub is turning fan behavior into an economic layer. Through its mobile-first app, fans earn LYLTY Points for match check-ins, lineup predictions, and purchases at partner businesses. These points can be redeemed for tangible rewards like beer, merchandise, hospitality, or even “play-on-the-pitch” experiences. Every transaction is verified on Avalanche. Real users create real value. Proof Points 30,000+ wallets and 250,000+ transactions within 60 days Partnerships with Scotland and Northern Ireland national teams launching this fall Visa, Mastercard, and Amex-approved payment integration FanHub has achieved all this on just $4 million raised, building one of the most capital-efficient economies onchain. With over 50 percent of wallets active on match days, it has become one of the highest-engagement networks in Web3. This is what real mainstream adoption looks like. Blockchain infrastructure is invisible to the user but essential to the experience. Uptop and Everyday Fan Rewards Uptop connects fandom to everyday spending. Following the success of Cavs Rewards, the company has expanded its NBA loyalty platform to the Detroit Pistons, marking its second franchise integration and proving the scalability of its model. The Detroit launch builds on the same core principles that worked in Cleveland: reward fans for everyday purchases, provide sponsors with clear attribution data, and keep the blockchain completely invisible to users. Every transaction is processed on Avalanche, turning routine spending into measurable engagement and real revenue for both teams and partners. How It Works Fans can pre-register through the Pistons app or Pistons.com/Rewards. When live, they link a payment method, which automatically creates an abstracted wallet. Everyday purchases at participating businesses earn Pistons Points, and bonus points can be collected by scanning receipts for eligible products or playing game predictions. Points can be redeemed instantly for tickets, merchandise, or experiences. Detroit’s strong fan base, active sponsor network, and local business community make it an ideal testbed for Uptop’s open-loop design. Early registration for Pistons Rewards is tracking 50 percent faster than the Cleveland launch. Why Avalanche Matters Avalanche gives sports businesses a clear growth path. Teams and ticketing platforms can start on the C-Chain today, issuing tickets, managing loyalty, or processing microtransactions at sub-cent fees and near-instant finality. As their ecosystems grow, they can scale to dedicated L1s using AvaCloud, gaining performance, customization, and independence while staying interoperable with the broader Avalanche network. This combination of speed, cost, and flexibility is why Avalanche is becoming the infrastructure of choice for sports organizations building next-generation fan experiences. The Bigger Picture: Sports Fandom Is Going Onchain Every part of the fan journey - ticketing, attendance, spending, engagement, and sharing, is being rebuilt around verified behavior. Sports are shifting from broadcast to participation and from impressions to transactions. Fans are no longer just audiences. They are participants in value networks where money, data, and attention flow transparently between teams, sponsors, and communities. Avalanche’s modular design makes this possible at any scale. Whether it is a national football team or a local club, organizations can start small and grow into fully fledged digital economies, all within the same interoperable network.