Autograph CEO on potential to be the ‘official NFT partner of the world’s most valuable names, brands, & content’
Dillon Rosenblatt, Autograph CEO and Co-Founder, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the NFT platform’s future outlook and its partnership with DraftKings and Lionsgate.
Video transcript
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: The hype over NFTs, those non-refundable tokens, isn't over yet. Autograph is an NFT platform co-founded by NFL great, Tom Brady. They recently inked deals with entertainment giant, Lionsgate, and sports betting company, DraftKings.
Joining us now to talk about it is Dillon Rosenblatt. He is CEO and co-founder of Autograph. Dillon, good to have you here. I don't need to tell you that the NFT space got very crowded pretty quickly. How are you setting your platform apart from the rest?
DILLON ROSENBLATT: Well, I think our differentiation really begins with these iconic talent partners that we've signed. We've announced Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, Tony Hawk, Naomi Osaka, and Wayne Gretzky. And we have many other partners to announce that are a part of our content library, as well as Lionsgate for the entertainment vertical.
So when you put all of these incredible people together with our mission of co-producing the world's most unique digital collections, I think we have a unique opportunity to position ourselves as the official NFT partner of the world's most valuable names, brands, and content.
ADAM SHAPIRO: Yeah, Anil Dash, CEO from Glitch, actually wrote an article not too long ago at The Atlantic, very critical of what's happened in the NFT space. And yet what you're doing with this partnership seems to address one big issue, is that the custodian, you folk, of the actual original physical object that is undermining or underlying the NFT, you're going to be around much longer than perhaps, you know, some organization called Fred's NFT Artwork. What do you say to the critics, though, who have concern that when you buy the NFT, you're not actually buying the licensing right for that physical item to do something with it?
DILLON ROSENBLATT: Well, I would say that we position our product as a collectible. You're going to enjoy collecting this content from Lionsgate, from one of the world's biggest talent. And it's not about owning the rights to it. It's about owning something that you love and that you can share and enjoy in a new way digitally. So to the critics, I would really say, this is a new digital good that you can actually own because of the incredible capabilities of Blockchain and the technology underlying it. So own it, enjoy it, share it, and the licensing rights aren't a large concern of ours.
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Can you share with us some of the things we might be seeing from these two deals that you just inked? Or you mentioned Lionsgate and also DraftKings.
DILLON ROSENBLATT: Yeah, on the Lionsgate front, they're going to be the leaders of our entertainment vertical. We are lucky to have them and their incredible content library to start creating these incredible digital collections from. And DraftKings is going to be the marketplace for our sports related NFT content. And I think that's really important to note.
They've committed to creating an accessible marketplace experience for their users. And that's in line with the mission that Autograph has, to bring NFTs to everybody who wants to own and enjoy a digital collectible. So in the nature of DraftKings, we'll be selling our sports-related content through them. And then with Lionsgate, it gives us access to one of the world's premier entertainment libraries.
ADAM SHAPIRO: Is it going to be a mix of, here's the fee, I buy, auction, or is it going to be all of one of the other?
DILLON ROSENBLATT: Well, I can speak to what we're doing today in our first sale. It's going to be a direct listing. It's going to be on the DraftKings marketplace. And we're calling them our pre-season passes. They're going to be about and around each star. They're going to be collectible. There's going to be a scarce number of them. And I'm really excited to share more in the coming weeks.
But we're starting out with the right listings. On the product roadmap, we plan to offer all different kinds of sales through different platform partners. Autograph wants to partner with the world's biggest talent, as I've said. And the marketplace that we drop on is going to be where their audience lives and where we think we can drive the most compelling sales for them.
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Before we let you go, real quick, Dillon, who's your audience here? Who is it that you are trying to get to buy these NFTs?
DILLON ROSENBLATT: I think the audience is really dependent on the actual talent. We want to excite their community and their audience, but the place that we're starting, obviously, is with sports fans, with the lineup that we've announced, with the DraftKings marketplace and their audience. We're going to be going after the people that love football. That viewership isn't enough for the people that love all these different sports icons and the sports that they've showed world class success in.
So the audience is going to prove itself. And I also want this to be an addition to every collector's portfolio. I'm a big physical collector myself. A ton of people that were excited to work at Autograph are physical collectors. But digital is just an addition. It's a new way to own and share things. And we're really excited to bring that to the world.
