The Maccabiah Games, unofficially referred to as the “Jewish Olympics,” are the signature event of the Maccabi World Union (Maccabi) held every five years. The 2022 games will be held between July 14 and July 28 in Israel.
For this year’s Maccabiah Games, the Maccabi World Union partnered with LEAP, a next generation sports-discovery and endorsement gaming platforming harnessing Web3.0, to expand the digital engagement of both organizations. The partnership opens new opportunities for Jewish athletes all around the world, while expanding Maccabi’s audience and onboarding Maccabi’s community onto LEAP’s platform.
So what does LEAP’s platform offer?
The Israeli startup taps blockchain technology to give every youth athlete a fair shot at gaining recognition for their talent. LEAP’s platform provides young athletes with a tool to showcase their athletic abilities in front of a digital community consisting of other athletes, coaches, talent seekers, and journalists.
Raw talent and physical skill alone won't cut it today, as young athletes face increasingly difficult odds of reaching the pros. In the U.S., home to many of the most prominent sports associations in the world as well as a high-class college and youth sports infrastructure, only one out of 16,000 high school athletes turns pro. In regions like Latin America and Africa, where sports are just as popular but resources more limited, the chances are even lower.
An up-and-coming youth athlete, first and foremost, needs the right environment for their talent to blossom. More often than not, this comes down to socio-economic conditions. Equipment is expensive and so is access to high-quality youth leagues with good coaches and trainers. Additionally, some young athletes grow up in isolated communities, effectively barring them from even participating in youth sports.
By leveraging Web3.0 technologies such as NFTs and crypto, LEAP has built a digital playground that empowers youth talent from disenfranchised backgrounds to showcase their skills through LEAP’s interactive platform.
Using play-2-earn (P2E) settings, LEAP facilitates competitions between users through its digital app. These one-on-one battles, known as DAREs, showcase talents performing a specific skill through a short video uploaded to the app. Once published, the LEAP Seekers community—consisting of fans, agents, hall of fame athletes, clubs and academies, brands, and journalists—gets to vote for whoever they feel performed the skill better.
The more talents interact and compete in DAREs, the higher their rating, or Karma and Stamina Score, becomes, resulting in the minting of unique player-card NFTs, whose value, worth and rarity will be empirically determined by the talent’s score. These NFTs can be bought and sold, allowing the talents to earn off their hard work, while also serving as a potential investment in case the athlete develops into a star.
LEAP’s partnership with the Maccabi World Union opens the door for many young Jewish athletes looking to make a name for themselves. The relationship between Maccabi and LEAP boosts both partners’ brand awareness. Athletes taking part in the Maccabi activities, including Maccabiah Games, will be able to leverage LEAP’s platform to promote their own brand and athletic endeavors within LEAP’s digital community.
More than just promoting the Maccabiah Games and pushing for brand recognition, this collaboration between LEAP and Maccabi fosters and promotes the shared vision of driving social inclusion within sports and within Jewish and non-Jewish communities around the world.
