The digital transformation is here and the sooner one starts riding the waves rather than being caught under the waves, the better it will be for you, says Dr Nelson “Chris” Stokes.

Almost every sphere of life will be impacted by the digital transformation, he argued, and “the new technologies have brought new opportunities to amplify brand value, generate revenues and, manage operations”.

Founder and executive chairman of NCS Enterprises and president of the Jamaica Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (JBSF) Stokes said the new situation of ineviatble reliance on technology in sport had been “fast forwarded, perhaps 10 years or so by some estimates as a result of the social distancing and shelter at home protection protocols brought on by the pandemic”.

The well-known sports administrator was the keynote speaker at Friday’s virtual 7th Sport Industry TT Confernece hosted by the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Association and was attended by Brian Lewis, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee and Commonwealth Games Association; Shamfa Cudjoe, the minister of sport and community development; and Senator Hassel Bacchus, minister of digital transformation.

Speaking on the theme “Accelerating your Digital Transformation-Failure is not an Option”, Stokes said while the method of fund-raising, for example, might have changed from prep school bake sales, the use of pen and paper to keep track of the money, the digital transformation and the use of cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse was the future.

“Although they may seem innovative, they are actually really a matter of meeting your fans, supporters, business partners and sponsors where they are and engaging the market as it exists,” he said, adding their uses could include various area in sports “wearables to better monitor and enhance athletic performances of athletes, simulators to get hundreds of runs down a new bobsleigh track before setting foot on the ice, or social media techniques for brand development”.

Focusing on three related areas of crytocurrencies, NFTs and the metaverse, Stokes warned: “Friends and colleagues, you can quickly see that to stand still is to fall behind. The technology divide cannot be another source of the bifurcation of sport participation, sport performance and fan engagement between the haves and have nots. If we are courageous in identifying trends and recognising the importance of digital transformation, and in this regard, I give a nod to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, then we have a chance to move purposefully into the future.”

He said in 2014 after the Jamaican two-man bobsleigh team had been confirmed to compete at the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, “a fan launched a crowdfunding campaign for the team on a site named Crowdtilt”.

“We figured we would need about U$40,000 to get us to the Games, [but] within 48 hours we had raised more than US$115,000. Another site, Indiego, came forward to support the initiative and collected another $40,000 within a few hours.

“Rememer this was 2014,” Stokes said, quoting the Crowdtilt CEO: “This is the Internet coming together… this is something that couldn’t have been done five years ago.”

The JBSF president said driven by the fan base, funding came in from all 50 US states and 49 countries.

“This was also my first meaningful exposure to cryptocurrency. Dogecoin created a Reddit community and quickly raised an additional US$30,000 in Dogecoin and converted it to Bitcoin because it was more stable. And by the way, if we had held on to that US$30,000 in Bitcoin and delayed its use until November 2021 as we begun qualification races for the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games, it would have been worth around $US$3.7 million,” Stokes reasoned.

The use of cryptocurencies, he said, was part of the payment when football superstar Lionel Messi transferred from Spanish giant Barcelona to French outfit PSG, a portion of the transfer fee “was payment in PSG fan tokens, or the club’s proprietary crypto asset, that not only acts as a tradable store of value, but also brings many benefits to its holders”.

“It’s a sort of digital fan club membership name tag. PSG claimed that the move to pay the 34-year-old Argentine in crypto positioned it as one of the “most innovative and avant-garde brands in sport globally,” Stokes added.

Last year, he noted, the Jamaican bobsleigh team led the way in raising funds for an Olympic sports team through the sale of NFTs.

“We partenered with Electric Token, a minority-owned tech company which itself partnered with @NFT which was co-founded by Jason Falovitch and NBA team Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban,” said Stokes

The Jamaican bobsleigh legend told the conference that: “The NFT Drop featured limited edition digital artwork which highlights the best of the Jamaican Bobsled Team brand: daring, courageousness, persistence, and claiming your place on earth regardless of where you are from.

“The NFT Drop initiative was the first of its kind, mixing in a range of authentic Jamaican digital and physical experiences from musicians, and art lovers along with a purpose-driven mission of securing the celebrated team a spot in the 2022 Olympic Winter Games utilising unique digital assets.”

The future of NFTs for sports media was bright with Deloitte Global predicting it will generate more than US$2 billion in transactions in 2022, “about double the figure for 2021. By the end of 2022, they expect that four–five million sports fans globally will have purchased or been gifted an NFT sports collectible”.

The four-time Olympian urged: “We must deepen our understanding of and participation in this emerging market for fan engagement, IP brand image retention and monetisation. The NBA in particular has a head start in the industry but the combination of the high levels of artistic, musical and sport achievement in the region positions us well.”

Dr Stokes said “partnerships that pair major sporting properties, like the International Cricket Council, with advocates of the metaverse, are increasingly common. Indeed, if the expectations of (Facebook CEO) Mark Zuckerberg et al materialise, the metaverse will revolutionise the way people consume sport and raise the bar for fan engagement to unprecedented heights”.

“A metaverse would dissolve geographical and physical barriers to deliver a better experience before, during and after games. For instance, participants in the Metaverse Sports Arena could take pictures with sports stars and chat with their heroes in real time or attend a virtual bar to interact with other fans,” stated Stokes.

He painted a picture of a futuristic situation where “during matches, the audience can have a panoramic view of the whole game and choose to zoom into any perspective of their choice, allowing them to delve into even greater detail”.