The Indian Boxing Council on Thursday announced the setting up of a six-team league for professional boxers which will be held outside of India in August 2022, will be broadcast on a pay-per-view platform and offer a big purse to the contestants in every fight.
The league called Hell's Bay Fight League (HFL) will run on a unique concept of peoples' ownership and run by IBC in association with TIAR.
"Though it will be managed and governed by TIAR and IBC, each team in the league will be jointly owned and collectively managed by 1500 people, who invest in the league. Shares of the six franchises to people will be sold to all those who will invest in the NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) through TIAR, which is a web3 startup based in India which aims to bring innovation to the art, sports and entertainment industry in India through blockchain," the IBC said in a release here on Thursday, calling the ownership pattern as a "first-of-its-kind" for Indian sports.
A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger, that can be sold and traded. Types of NFT data units may be associated with digital files such as photos, videos, and audio. In January, TIAR and IBC had announced the launch of their NFTs, which would include artwork, players' profiles and key moments of Indian professional boxing, the release said.
Shedding more light on the much-awaited league, Akshar Madhavaram, CEO, TIAR, said: "We will invite people to invest in NFTs through TIAR. Once you invest in the NFTs, you will be eligible to jointly own the team. There will be six teams, with 1,500 people each for one team, there will be a total of 9000 boxing and NFT enthusiasts, who will manage their respective teams. This has never happened anywhere in the world before," Madhavaram said.
Each team owner will get access to the voting platform of the league, which will allow them to select the players for their team from the pool of boxers, manage their training as well as decide on the fight card.
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On the other hand, all boxers registered under IBC, which is the governing body for professional boxing in India, will be eligible to be part of the boxers' pool.
"It is a big step, and a unique one, towards our aim of taking Professional Boxing to the doors of every Indian household. With this league, pro boxing lovers will not only get a tournament to watch but will also get to own a team. We will announce details like the total number of players in the league, the number of fights and the venue soon," said Brigadier PKM Raja (Retd), President, IBC.
