InPlay Global, a company building a market for live sports performance, has announced a strategic partnership with tZERO Group, Inc., a leader in blockchain-based financial infrastructure, to develop Sports Performance Securities™. These equity instruments will have values linked to team performance, aiming to create an entirely new category of market participation for sports fans, investors, traders, and institutions.
The partnership combines InPlay's market model with tZERO's regulated digital securities infrastructure. According to Edwin Johnson, Founder and CEO of InPlay Global, "Sportsbooks allow users to wager on outcomes. Prediction markets allow users to trade probabilities. Yet no equity market exists for sports performance itself. We're changing that. Sports performance is becoming an investable asset class, and InPlay is building the market designed to support it."
Alan Konevsky, Chairman and CEO of tZERO, added, "Tokenization, coupled with the right market structure, transforms real-world rights, interests, and economic activity into investable assets. The most impactful innovations often emerge when entirely new categories become accessible through market infrastructure. Sports performance represents a compelling and largely untapped frontier. As InPlay develops digital securities products tied to sports performance and de-risks the asset origination challenge with their model, tZERO is proud to provide the regulated infrastructure that can help bring greater transparency, accessibility, and market participation to the space."
The announcement comes as InPlay prepares to launch the InPlay Trading Challenge™, a free-to-enter national competition aligned with the 2026 professional and college football seasons. Featuring cash prizes and participants from more than 15 universities, the competition is designed to introduce students and sports fans to sports markets, trading concepts, and financial literacy through active participation.
InPlay Global is developing Sports Performance Securities™ – equity instruments whose value is linked to team performance. By combining sports, finance, and technology, InPlay is creating a new form of participation that allows users to analyze, value, and trade team performance through market-based engagement rather than wagering on or predicting discrete outcomes.
tZERO Group, Inc. and its broker-dealer subsidiaries provide an innovative liquidity platform for private companies and assets. They offer institutional-grade solutions for issuers looking to digitize their capital table through blockchain technology, and make such equity available for trading on an alternative trading system. For more information, visit their website.
This partnership marks a significant step toward creating a regulated market for sports performance, potentially unlocking new investment opportunities and reshaping how fans engage with sports.
