NFT racehorses launch on John Terry-backed blockchain platform
MetaRace partners with trainer Oliver Cole to digitise horseracing in a move to engage a “wider audience”
MetaRace has launched a new peer-to-peer (P2P) NFT-based horseracing platform on blockchain that has attracted funding from former England defender John Terry.
The new site allows players to purchase unique NFT racehorses and all them to compete against fellow site users in a play-to-earn game mode.
To register for a race, players pay with a META token, with the winnings divided among the first five horses.
Winnings can then be used to add decorations to the racehorses and enter further competitions.
Users can also breed these racehorses to create new ones.
In its white paper, MetaRace said the launch of digital horseracing would help support the existing horseracing industry, rather than rival it.
The firm said: “Many sports have already been digitised and horse racing has also undergone many changes, but it’s far from enough.
There are many people in the market discussing how to enable a wider audience to participate in the horseracing industry, and integrating with the blockchain provides this opportunity.
“Horseracing has a long and much celebrated history, but in recent decades, fraud and corruption have affected the time honoured sport. We have seen reports of horse doping, bribing jockeys to lose races, race rigging and money laundering. Horseracing can become cleaner and fairer through blockchain technology.”
The site runs on the Caduceus blockchain which is specifically dedicated to the metaverse.
MetaRace has also partnered with trainer Oliver Cole and Whatcombe Racing to work on developing the platform.
Alex Dorsi, MetaRace community manager, said: “All of us at MetaRace are passionate gamers and equally passionate horseracing fans, so the synergy of this game was too irresistible not to merge the two and MetaRace was born.
“We already have a strong following and access to the audiences of both worlds and hope the introduction of one to the other can produce a friendship that is commercial, as well as enormous fun,” he added.
This new platform echoes Rahul Sood’s plans to launch a horseracing NFT platform in partnership with Australian firm ZED.
Earlier this year, Caduceus raised $4m in an over-subscribed Series A round from a range of crypto-firms and ex-Chelsea captain John Terry.