UK-based motorsport team McLaren Racing has announced a multi-year partnership with blockchain network Tezos.
The deal will see the network become the team’s official technical partner, this includes the McLaren Shadow esports team alongside its McLaren Formula One and INDYCAR divisions.
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Alongside being named technical partner of the sim racing team, Tezos has also been unveiled as a presenting partner for McLaren Shadow. The team currently fields drivers across a number of disciplines including the F1 Esports Series, Assetto Corsa Competizione, and most recently Trackmania.
According to the release, the partnership will see McLaren use Tezos’s ‘ energy-efficient and upgradeable’ network to create a non-fungible token (NFT) platform.
Lindsey Eckhouse, Director of Licencing, Ecommerce, and Esports at McLaren Racing, spoke on the partnership in a release: “Tezos and McLaren Racing uniting to create a unique fan-focused NFT platform is an innovative step in an exciting and rapidly developing industry.”
“At McLaren we are known for putting fans at the heart of everything we do, and this is another partnership which allows us to enter a space where fans can own key pieces of our team. We are looking forward to launching the platform with Tezos to create bespoke NFTs with our Formula 1, INDYCAR and esports teams.”
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Tezos becomes the sixth partner of McLaren Shadow, joining Veloce Esports, Sparco Gaming, Alienware, Splunk, and gaming peripherals brand Logitech G on its roster.
Esports Insider says: The trend of NFTs in esports doesn’t appear to be slowing down as several organisations are beginning to launch their own set to highlight their achievements. While this particular deal between McLaren and Tezos primarily focuses on its real-world racing history, it will be interesting to see how the network benefits the sim racing team.