Basketball.fun is processing refunds for those who aren’t willing to wait until the NBA-focused crypto project’s marketplace goes live—a move aimed at managing users’ expectations after former Cleveland Cavaliers player Tristan Thompson stopped promoting the project.
Since Basketball.fun began allowing users to purchase packs of digital player cards in January, the professional basketball player has moved on from his role as an advisor, according to a statement shared with Decrypt.
“I’m proud to have helped support the vision in its early days,” Thompson said. “As the platform continues to develop, the team at Improbable is taking the lead on the project and I’ve stepped back from any active involvement.”
Developed alongside Improbable, the team behind layer-1 network Somnia, Basketball.fun is billed as a way for people to speculate on the performance of NBA players when it debuted in October. It’s a riff on fantasy basketball, with a crypto twist—and no official league license.
Over the past two weeks, our team has been head down working on a big update we were getting ready to share with our community.
Basketball.fun users can gain access to “shares” in athletes that are meant to fluctuate in value game-to-game, but as of yet, they haven’t gained the ability to sell or trade those assets.
The project is continuing to build in that direction, while also working on its own version of a prediction market, Basketball.fun co-founder and CEO Hadi Teherany told Decrypt.
“The culture of somebody putting money into pack sales and having to wait two months isn’t unheard of,” Teherany said. “Obviously, we wanted to be respectful of that when it became an issue.”
Teherany estimated that Basketball.fun has received 24 refund requests so far, totaling under $2,000 worth of pack sales. The company is also offering a “10% boost” on users’ current purchases, if they wait until the project’s planned trading debut at the start of the NBA playoffs in April.
"Other opportunities"Teherany, who grew up in Toronto, said he became friends with Thompson at a young age. The athlete, who created his own podcast called “Courtside Crypto” last year, stepped back from the project weeks before Basketball.fun began publicizing refunds for users, Teherany added.
“There was no intention of scamming users in any way,” Improbable Chief Marketing Officer Irina Scarlat told Decrypt. “It was just a pre-sale, with the intention of people being able to get out of their positions and sell their packs once the product is launched.”
Mega Boxes are the most efficient way to collect.
More packs → more players → more shares.
When trading starts, the ones with the most shares will be winning.
Thompson, who did not sign a contract to return to the Cavaliers for the current NBA season, is currently considered an unsigned free agent. Although he hasn’t announced his retirement yet, Teherany suggested that he’s exploring his options as far as what’s next.
“If you look at Tristan’s habits and schedule, he was doing NBA TV and some other consulting work in the crypto space,” Teherany said. “I think he realized a few months ago that he kind of wanted to chase some other opportunities.”
