11/5/2023 0 Comments Drone racing league 2022![]() “Drone Racing League is top to bottom able to embrace these new technologies,” Algorand COO Sean Ford told me over the phone. When DRL builds crypto-based video games with Playground Labs, they will be on Algorand. Perhaps the league’s biggest move came last fall when it struck a five-year deal with blockchain platform Algorand for a reported $100 million. “We’ve found a unique opportunity with a generation of new sports fans that love technology.” “Nobody’s standing in our way,” Jacobson, a former NBA executive, reiterates. ![]() With 3.4 million followers, DRL has surpassed MLS and NHL in audience size on the platform and is knocking on MLB’s door. She’s visibly proud of the league’s growth on TikTok - 400% in the past year. “We became the first aerial sport that you can bet on,” she noted, referencing the league’s partnership with DraftKings. “I’m waking up myopically focused on our growth trajectory and what is the most accelerated path to being a mainstream sport and billion-dollar business,” Drone Racing League president Rachel Jacobson told me over Zoom, listing the league’s accomplishments in quick succession. Insurance giant Allianz, drone solutions business Draganfly, the United States Air Force, play-to-earn blockchain game developer Playground Labs, leading video game accessories maker Nacon Gaming, and data company Genius Sports have all signed up to work with DRL. Amy Azzi, T-Mobile’s senior director of sports marketing and partnerships, told me that the company considers drones “one of the most compelling and entertaining areas we see potential.”Ī who’s who of prominent entities across a wide range of industries share the same sentiment. T-Mobile is a partner and investor through its T-Mobile Ventures fund the brand collaborates with DRL on 5G-powered drone tech. Some of the league’s standout investors from the sports world include WWE and Liberty Media, owner of Formula 1 and the Atlanta Braves. Our last funding round was our Series C, which we closed in 2019,” Horbaczewski said. “To date, we’ve closed over $80 million in funding. If you’re having a hard time visualizing what the sport looks like, imagine the pod racing scene from “Star Wars: Episode I,” shrink the competing vehicles down to drone size, and move the location from Tatooine to a venue like the FedExForum in Memphis (where the league hosted a Christmas Day race) or the Las Vegas Strip, site of this season’s championship events.Įach drone is covered in LED lights that heighten visibility and create a neon spectacle as the aircrafts race through checkpoint gates at more than 80 miles per hour while their pilots operate them with controllers and first-person view headsets from a nearby location. “They love tech, they love video games, they love content, and we’re providing this sport that’s really relevant to their interest set.” High-Profile Partners “You look at our fan base and 70% of our fans don’t engage with the big five sports,” Drone Racing League founder and CEO Nicholas Horbaczewski told me on a Zoom call. The league calls these individuals “tech-setters” - folks who you’d more likely find watching gameplay videos of “Elden Ring” this weekend than James Harden’s Philadelphia 76ers debut. The answer lies in DRL’s appeal to an audience that extends beyond traditional sports fans. The numbers seemed surprisingly high to me, knowing that, for example, the 2021 NBA Finals on ABC only averaged 9.91 million viewers.Įven when considering that the DRL figure was tallied across the globe and that there’s probably a less stringent viewership methodology on Twitter, how the hell are so many people watching Drone Racing League? 20 was viewed by 21.1 million people worldwide on Twitter. The league says the championship race that aired on Feb. ![]() “We’re enthusiastic about the success and growth that Drone Racing League has seen across our NBC Sports platforms since our partnership began in 2019,” Gary Quinn, the network’s Vice President of Programming & Owned Properties, noted via email. It was the culmination of a season where the league says it doubled its global broadcast reach to more than 250 million households across 13 sports networks. The league’s 2021-22 championship race was held in Las Vegas in January and aired on NBC and Twitter in February. New York-based Drone Racing League represents a convergence of all of the above.įounded in 2015, the international drone racing competition is experiencing a rapid ascent uncharacteristic of sports leagues that one would normally categorize as niche. The first couple years of the 2020s have made it clear that certain elements of culture will likely be inextricable from the future of sports, namely: tech, gaming, and cryptocurrency.
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