Elnur Guliyev: "Sumgayit" Made a Breakthrough in Azerbaijani Basketball" - INTERVIEW

The "Sumgayit" club has taken an interesting and innovative step towards the development and digitalization of basketball in the country.

The representative of the "City of Youth" is trying to both take advantage of technology and establish more interactive communication with fans by implementing the NFT (digital collection) project for the first time. The NFT collection called "Basketball Legends of Sumgayit" was created on the Ethereum blockchain with the ERC-1155 standard and was put up for sale on opensea.io, one of the world's most popular NFT platforms, for a price of 0.35 ethereum (approximately $1,175).

Elnur Guliyev, the director of "Sumgayit", gave more detailed information about the project in his interview with offsideplus.az.

- How did the NFT idea come about? Where did this initiative come from?

- In recent years, digitalization in the field of sports has been developing rapidly around the world, and I thought that we should also act in accordance with these trends. In particular, we wanted to create a closer, more interactive and modern connection with fans. The initiative to create NFT arose from our desire to both take advantage of the opportunities of technology and share information about the "Sumgayit" club in a different form.

- Can your initiative as the first basketball club in Azerbaijan to come up with this initiative be an example for others?

- Our main goal is to make basketball loved, popularized and developed in our country. One of our goals in creating NFT is to pave the way for innovative approaches in the sports sector and encourage other sports clubs to enter this field. NFT is not only a technological innovation, but also a new stage in marketing and fan relations. We hope that this step will be an example for other clubs and will contribute to the digital development of sports in the country.

- To what extent has there been interest in NFTs? And what works do you plan to do to increase interest in this project?

- In the first stage, interest in our NFTs was mainly from basketball fans and students and young people interested in technology. However, we plan to organize special campaigns, social media projects and live meetings with fans in the next season to reach a wider audience. At the same time, we aim to further increase this interest by providing NFT owners with certain exclusive privileges. In particular, we plan to conduct awareness-raising activities related to digital technologies in educational institutions located in the city of Sumgayit.

- How can NFTs contribute to the financial stability of the club in the future?

- It is still too early to see NFTs as a source of income in the initial stage. However, experience shows that there are prospects for earning additional income from the sale of NFT collections. Usually, the income from NFT sales is directed to the club's youth programs, academy and marketing activities. This can also be useful as an alternative source of income.

- If it proves itself, are you thinking of giving NFT owners any exclusive advantages?

- Yes, we have plans in this direction. We are thinking of offering NFT owners advantages in the future, such as free entry to games, invitations to club events, discounts on special fan products, or digital content designed only for NFT owners. This will both increase the fan's connection to the Sumgayit club and further strengthen the real value of NFTs.

- Apart from this project, what other digital innovation plans do you have?

- NFT is just a beginning for us. In the future, we plan to work on projects such as interactive mobile applications, fan experience with virtual reality (VR) and digital fan zones. Our goal is to make the "Sumgayit" basketball club a club that is known not only for its sports achievements, but also for its technological innovations.

- Do you have any plans to carry out awareness-raising activities related to NFTs?

- Yes, we intend to promote this field with seminars in schools and universities, and with videos in simple language on social networks. NFT is not just technology, it is a new form of creativity and property rights.

- How do you assess the future of NFTs and other new technologies in Azerbaijan?

- Technologies such as NFT, Web3, Blockchain are still in their early stages of development. In the near future, the formation of legal frameworks will help to further spread this sector. We also want to be at the forefront of this process. In this direction, we highly appreciate the trust and support shown to us by the Azerbaijan Basketball Federation.

Idman.biz