Fungiball Secures Rights to Tennis Stars for Fantasy Tennis Game

The Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) and its commercial affiliate, Winners Alliance, have formed a collaboration with Fungiball, a developer in the next-generation fantasy tennis gaming sphere. The partnership will create the first large-scale game featuring more than 250 professional men’s and women’s tennis players. Fungiball has secured rights to showcase these players’ names, images and likenesses in their upcoming licensed tennis game.

“With over 250 professional tennis players, Fungiball offers unparalleled authenticity in the Fantasy Tennis universe,” says Ahmad Nassar, executive director, The Professional Tennis Players Association. “Our collaboration with Fungiball reinforces the PTPA’s and Winners Alliance’s commitment to supporting players with new, incremental revenue-generating opportunities and empowering them to maximize their off-the-court value.”

Scheduled for launch this month, Fungiball’s Web3 fantasy tennis game has hundreds of ATP and WTA tennis players, allowing fans the opportunity to play with Felix Auger-Aliassime, Alexander Bublik, Ons Jabeur, Nick Kyrgios, Naomi Osaka, Tommy Paul, Jessica Pegula, Andrey Rublev, Caroline Garcia, Karolina Muchova, Jelena Ostapenko and many others. According to Fungiball, the game financially supports featured players and fosters novel engagement opportunities with fans.

“We are committed to providing a high-quality gaming experience for tennis fans worldwide,” says Jean Matias, chief executive officer, Fungiball. “Fungiball merges the excitement of professional tennis with blockchain technology. We’re thrilled to provide gamers and tennis fans a more immersive and interactive experience by featuring a robust lineup of the sport’s biggest stars and next-generation talents.”

Users can craft unique game avatars, each endowed with four core skill sets: Serve, Return, Mental and Power. To enhance their avatar’s proficiency, users can engage in weekly online tournaments – mirroring the professional tennis schedule – or utilize the Fungiball marketplace to collect and trade digital cards (NFTs) featuring their preferred men and women players.

Each player’s digital card encapsulates attributes, including Serve, Return, Mental and Power ratings and factors such as favorite court type. As real-life players’ on-court performances and results fluctuate throughout the tour season, the skills ratings, value and rarity of their corresponding Fungiball NFTs also evolve.

“Fungiball is an exciting addition to our growing portfolio of partners,” says Eric Winston, president, Winners Alliance. “Fungiball’s commitment to providing fair market value and increased visibility to players aligns with Winners Alliance’s athlete-centric model. We look forward to continuing to provide players and their teams with dynamic and impactful opportunities.”

The marketplace is live and features dozens of players, with additional players added throughout this year. Gameplay will be available to users beginning late this month.