Pro sports league Karate Combat to launch DAO for fan, athlete governance

Karate Combat, a prominent full-contact martial arts league, announced the decision to form a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to transition its governance to fans and athletes.

Karate Combat’s DAO will be launched as part of a three-year sponsorship deal with Hedera’s HBAR Foundation, expected to go live in December 2022. Holders of Karate Combat’s in-house governance token, KARATE, will get to vote on various decisions, which include determining the league’s budget, resource allocation, supplier selection, marketing strategy and rule changes.

In addition, the DAO will enable fans to vote on athlete-related decisions such as fighter contracts and fight match-up selections based on predetermined boundaries of influence. Karate Combat plans to distribute 50% of its in-house tokens to the community for free, to be used for participation in the DAO and a gaming application.

Participation in Karate Combat’s DAO is expected to span globally as the league broadcasts in more than 100 countries through mainstream and online channels, including CBS Sports, Eurosport, YouTube and TikTok. Adam Kovacs, the president of Karate Combat, highlighted the need for improving fan engagement, stating:

“The sporting world must evolve to increase engagement with a new generation of fans who have grown up on social media and digital gaming. They expect to be active participants in the action, rather than passive viewers.”

According to Karate Combat, the league hosts an online community of over 3.5 million fans who could potentially help steer future decisions. Shayne Higdon, the co-founder and CEO of HBAR Foundation, envisions the upcoming DAO to attract more users to the Hedera Network, which, in turn, will help bestow “tangible, real-world impact for end-users.”

Unlike most crypto sub ecosystems that currently explore avenues for recovery, the GameFi industry lacks the involvement of blockbuster titles, according to Kevin Shao, executive president of the Asia Blockchain Gaming Alliance (ABGA).

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Shao highlighted the lack of attention to “game performance” and users' enjoyment. Rather, he believed that the current GameFi titles focus solely on nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and play-to-earn (P2E) features.

While stressing the importance of accommodating different users' tastes, he stated that the introduction of several "triple-A" titles in GameFi would be essential for the ecosystem’s comeback.