Sailing League Backed By Billionaire Larry Ellison And World Champion Russell Coutts Charts New Course Into Web3

SailGP—dubbed the sailing world’s equivalent of Formula One—is navigating into the Web3 space.

SailGP is aiming to have a professional sailing team owned and operated by a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, that complies with the U.S. securities law, Russell Coutts said in an interview in Singapore on the sideline of the Forbes Global CEO Conference. Coutts, a five-time America’s Cup winner, cofounded SailGP with Oracle’s billionaire chairman and CTO Larry Ellison in 2018.

Their plan for a DAO, which will be run by its members and built on blockchain platform NEAR, is set to issue both security tokens and fan tokens. The security tokens represent ownership in the sailing team and will be made available to 2,000 accredited investors, whereas people who buy the fan tokens will be entitled to vote on team decisions.

The DAO that meets SailGP’s entry requirements is expected to be formed as early as this month, Coutts said. The community-led organization will need to decide whether to establish a new team or purchase an existing one out of the current nine national teams.

“We believe this will be the first fully DAO-operated team under the U.S. securities framework,” said Coutts, CEO of SailGP. The team could join the championship as soon as June 2023 when the fourth season kicks off.

SailGP races use identical foiling 50-foot catamarans capable of flying across the water at a top speed of 60 mph, and culminates in a winner-takes-all $1 million prize.

Ellison and Coutts have been steering SailGP toward being commercially sustainable with a zero carbon footprint. Their aim is to power its entire fleet with renewable energy by 2025.

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Coutts believes that the DAO-operated sailing team is the “ultimate implementation of a fan loyalty program.” He said there are many possibilities for members of the DAO to engage in the sport, including participating in a team briefing and meeting with star players.

“Fans will no longer just sit on the sidelines,” Coutts said. “Web3 has the potential to allow fans to be fully immersed in the sport they love, including having a say in team decisions and accessing experiences previously reserved for only those in the owners suite.”

SailGP first jumped on the crypto bandwagon in March, announcing its multi-year partnership with NEAR blockchain to explore the sale of a new team to a DAO. The announcement came at a time when sports teams worldwide are increasingly utilizing crypto and blockchain technologies to elevate fan engagement to a higher level. Early this year, Kiat Lim, son of Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim, said he had joined hands with former Manchester United players to launch a DAO to allow professional football ownership among fans.

SailGP has also teamed up with Oracle to launch an online fan engagement platform utilizing blockchain assets that caters to those without knowledge of crypto and blockchain technologies. “The initial experience will be a mix of Web2 and Web3 because we want to make it as easy as possible for people to access and get that fan engagement experience,” said Coutts.

SailGP has also recently announced that it is hosting its first Asian Grand Prix in Singapore in January 2023. The move is set to expand its racing circuit that already covers Australia, France, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S., among others.