Even as Manchester United star Christiano Ronaldo inked a multi-year partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Binance to release his NFTs, experts are of the opinion that the deal will set a precedent for other sports icons to join the bandwagon.

NFTs are rapidly gaining traction across the world, as scores of celebrities are endorsing the digital tokens, either by minting their own collections or purchasing them at high prices.

Celebrities like Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, and Tony Hawk are already endorsing NFTs, with the Portuguese football star becoming the latest member of the club.

NFTs will be sold out in seconds

“Ronaldo is a top-class current football legend with hundreds of million followers across all social media. His NFT would surely be sold-out in seconds when launched and the over subscription will flow to the secondary market creating another round of hype,”

Anndy Lian, Chief Digital Advisor, Mongolian Productivity Organization, said.

When asked to predict an estimation of Ronaldo’s NFTs value, Lian said if there are unique pieces with special rights, “a few hundred thousand without problem” and that this price range is taken with the current market reference for NFT and prices of Ronald’s collectibles.

Lian said signing big Intellectual Properties like this is also part of a bear market strategy and that there is a need to bring in non-crypto new blood to support the market now. “I am also curious what the other centralized marketplaces such as Bybit for instance would do next to grab their share of the pie,” he said.

Responding to another query, Lian predicted that either South Korea-based K-Pop supergroup BTS or basketball player LeBron James could be the next in line to launch NFTs.

Binance needed this partnership

Raj Kapoor, the chief advisor of crypto advisory firm Acryptoverse, suspects Binance needed this partnership with Ronaldo to possibly bring value to BSC and begin increasing its NFT market share.

Asked to estimate the value of Ronaldo’s NFTs collection, Kapoor says guesstimating is dangerous but if one goes by the thumb rule, a few more zeroes are going to be added soon to his net worth.

“Ronaldo would be raking in upwards of $5 million with this new partnership and I am being conservative,” Kapoor says and predicts that “media favorite Lionel Messi, would soon be the next NFT darling.”

Raj Kapoor, chief advisor at Acryptoverse

Kapoor says worth over $420m, Messi remains a popular figure with an unparalleled fan following and that he would not be surprised if his next big goal would be in the NFT space.

Just the beginning

Germany-based Aliasgar Merchant, founder of ‘Learn Web3 With Us’ says launching and promotion of NFTs is an indication of the overall adoption of the web3 space, however, it might also be an underrepresentation of what NFTs are capable of doing.

“Predicting the kind of sales Ronaldo’s NFTs will make is a long shot, given the bearish crypto market sentiments prevalent. Previously, Snoop dog made around $100,000 from his NFT sale. I would predict something around that range for Ronaldo too, given the conditions of the market don’t deteriorate,”

Aliasgar Merchant, founder of ‘Learn Web3 With Us’

Merchant further said the trend of launching NFTs by celebrities is skyrocketing and that this is just the beginning for sports icons to join the trend. “If I had to make a guess, I would predict Neymar and Novak Djokovic would be next in line,” Merchant says.

Sustaining prices subject to demand and supply influence

Tapan Sangal, founder and Chief Evangelist of P2E Pro, a technology company, said while the initial offer price for his collection would be driven by his fan fervor, once the pixie dust settles, sustaining the same would be subject to demand and supply influences in the NFT marketplace.

“The important question that needs to be answered is as to how will his loyal fans turned investors be safeguarded when brutal market forces, agnostic to Ronaldo’s fandom, come into play, in the seemingly unsecure NFT zone, which promises ownership of an authentic Ronaldo moment,”

Tapan Sangal, founder of P2E Pro

Sangal predicted football players Lionel Messi, Neymar, Mohamed Salah, or even Pele could be the next in line to come up with their own NFT collections.