Dapper Labs launches LaLiga Golazos NFT marketplace

Blockchain game developer Dapper Labs is releasing the Spanish football league LaLiga’s NFT marketplace, ‘Golazos.’ LaLiga Golazos will launch in closed beta on October 27. The marketplace will sell NFT trading cards representing video highlights of the league’s best moments and top players.

LaLiga announced the collaboration with DapperLabs, the creators of the popular NFT game NBA Top Shot, back in September 2021.

Golazos (translates as an incredible goal in Spanish) allows minting NFTs on the Flow blockchain. Users will be able to sell and trade football-related collectible cards representing memorable moments, player performance details, and match statistics in English and Spanish.

The cards will feature football moments dating from 2005 until today. The first pack of cards will be released on the day of the launch and will include La Liga rivalries editions, such as Barcelona vs. Real Madrid, Atletico de Madrid vs. Real Madrid, Sevilla vs. Real Betis, and others.

“If you look at some of the rivalries in La Liga, you’re talking about literally 100-year rivalries, and we don’t really have that in North American sports. We think that it’ll be really fun to lean into the derbies and El Clasico,”

said Caty Tedman, the head of partnerships at Dapper Labs.

Some star players appearing and promoting Golazos include Croatian midfielder Luka Modric from Real Madrid, Portuguese forward Joao Felix from Atletico de Madrid, and German goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen from Barcelona.

Dapper Lab’s first venture into the NFT space was with NBA Top Shot back in early 2021. Since then, Dapper raised over $550 million in funding rounds led by Coatue, with participation from crypto investors Andreesen Horowitz (a16z), Google Ventures, and Version One Ventures, and reached a valuation of $7.6 billion.

As for LaLiga, the group signed a two-and-a-half-year partnership deal with South Korean metaverse company TMV in May to create a virtual ecosystem for football fans, with TMV being the league’s official metaverse sponsor. In September, LaLiga took another step into the virtual world by partnering with VegasCity and Stadioplus to enter the popular metaverse platform Decentraland. The project focuses on bringing younger generations closer to football through interactive experiences.