Perfect Game Taps Fusion92 to Reimagine the Next Generation of Sports Content
SANFORD, Florida — Oct. 6, 2023 — Perfect Game, the world’s largest elite youth baseball and softball platform and scouting service, and the preeminent source for media, stats and related content from the next generation of MLB All-Stars, today announced the launch of its NextGen Series in partnership with Mint Werx, Fusion92’s emerging technologies and innovations incubator. The inaugural Series 001 trading cards celebrate Perfect Game’s evolution as a fully integrated events and multimedia brand.
For nearly 30 years, Perfect Game has been the leader in youth sports and has shifted the trajectory through its mission of promoting the game of baseball now and in the future by hosting the highest quality amateur events while providing meaningful opportunities and information to players, families, MLB organizations, college coaches and fans.
In its next phase, Perfect Game continues to lead the way during a rapidly expanding digital revolution of social media, technology and content creator-based economies. With its fully integrated memberships and multimedia apps, Perfect Game will connect its powerhouse events with the strength of its community through user-centric benefits, rich video streaming content, e-commerce and unified digital to physical experiences. In doing so, Perfect Game will enable its vast ecosystem with world-class AI and blockchain technologies to innovate and create a new paradigm for developing the next generation of baseball stars.
Perfect Game dominates the national tournament and showcase events circuit featuring more than 1.5 million premier athletes and coaches competing across 40 states. Hosting more than 6.2 million attendees at its 9,800+ events and 140,000+ games annually. Perfect Game has inspired some of the greatest moments in baseball history and is rooted in the lineage of origin stories from its nearly 2,000 iconic professional MLB Perfect Game alumni.
"Celebrating the energy and excitement of youth sports is fundamental to Perfect Game's core," said Rob Ponger, CEO of Perfect Game. "Building on that foundation, while drawing inspiration from Perfect Game athletes, our NextGen Series trading cards represent the future, offering fans a digital snapshot of a player's legacy. As we continue to innovate in youth sports, NextGen Series trading cards are set to reshape how we celebrate today's stars and showcase tomorrow's legends."
Perfect Game’s NextGen trading cards reimagine how we collect and memorialize the moments that led to these Players’ ultimate rise to stardom. It also sets the stage for the next chapter in their baseball careers.
It’s the Rookie Card, Before the Rookie Card.
NextGen trading cards feature the next wave of content for collectors in a way that has never been seen before. The industry’s first interactive, multimedia 3D trading cards that can be experienced without a special app, include hand-selected photos, video highlights, scouting reports and stats on each player. The new immersive NextGen Series website is also built upon hyper-efficient 4K compatible Web3 technology and is fully displaying just-in-time content, in real-time from the blockchain at a fraction of the cost.
“Perfect Game’s exclusive NextGen trading cards not only signify their dominance in youth sports tournaments and showcases but also their commitment to innovation in the quality, scale and value of the content produced within their community,” said Ryan Sands, SVP, Mint Werx. “We’re proud to partner with Perfect Game to achieve their vision through transformative innovations in memberships and sports media and to raise the standard in the future of baseball and sports fandom overall.”
Through its unwavering commitment to innovation, Perfect Game’s NextGen trading cards also fundamentally reshape how collectors and traders can truly own a unique piece of baseball history.
- Always in pristine condition. NextGen trading cards are securely minted in digital format ensuring they can never be accidentally bent or damaged.
- Never question if other NextGen trading cards are real. Collectors will now be certain that their trading cards are authentic and have an easy way to verify the entire collection online for free.
- Eliminate physical limitations to collect and trade. Traders now have a safe and intuitive way to buy, sell and swap their favorite players’ trading cards with fellow members of their community around the world.
No more costly or subjective card grading systems. No more fakes or duplicates. No more complications or price hikes from online intermediaries or local card shops. This is Perfect Game’s vision for the next generation of trading cards and collectible memorabilia, driven purely by its love for the community and the game.
In total, there will only ever be 8,000 Series 001 packs available worldwide, featuring 40,000 individually unique NextGen trading cards that are hand-designed generative artworks with no duplication and immutable timestamps for each trading card minted. Collectors can choose to keep their packs unopened or play the odds in opening and collecting some of the rarest baseball trading cards ever produced.
NextGen trading cards will feature various levels of rarity, including highly sought-after 1-of-1s for the ultimate collectors. Each pack includes five never-before-seen trading cards, showcasing curated content on professional MLB Perfect Game alumni and its future rising stars.
Perfect Game’s NextGen Series 001 packs go on sale at nextgen.perfectgame.org.
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Contact for Press
Perfect Game: Greg Casterioto
gcasterioto@perfectgame.org
(267) 246 - 5709
Fusion92: Rachel Hancock
r.hancock@fusion92.com
(310) 896 - 6247
About Perfect Game
Perfect Game is the world's largest elite youth baseball and softball platform and scouting service, producing over 9,800+ events, hundreds of thousands of games and showcases each year across the country. Perfect Game is dedicated to giving amateur players exposure to take their game to the next level, whether that be in college or in the professional ranks. At Perfect Game events, players are performing with top-level competition in front of college recruiters and professional scouts from all over the country. Because of this, these events prove to be invaluable to college coaches as well as Major League Baseball, as they can scout a large population of talented ballplayers in one location. To date, more than 1,847 players who have played in a Perfect Game event have also played in Major League Baseball. Since 2003, 13,893 Perfect Game alumni have been selected in the MLB First-Year Amateur Player Draft. In the 2022 Draft, for example, more than 90% of all players selected had played in Perfect Game events, and every player selected on the Draft's first day had previously attended Perfect Game events.
About Mint Werx
Mint Werx is Fusion92’s emerging technologies and innovations accelerator. Harnessing the power of the latest advancements in blockchain, Web3, Web5 and artificial intelligence, Mint Werx’s mission is to create, reinvent and revolutionize growth strategies that propel brands, creators and communities. Deeply rooted at the cutting-edge of creativity, technology and culture, Mint Werx delivers its fully integrated solutions across all of Fusion92’s marketing, consulting and technology products and services. Learn more at MintWerx.com.
About Fusion92
Founded in 1999, Fusion92 is a Marketing Transformation Partner that helps innovatively solve business challenges, delivering exponential returns for brands. The firm fuels business transformation in today's digital economy by imagining unexpected, data-driven solutions and seamlessly integrating across its end-to-end marketing products and services. The independent, Chicago-based firm with additional hubs in Detroit, Austin and Denver is backed by Serata Capital Partners and Landon Capital Partners and is committed to a diverse, equitable, inclusive workplace that drives positive impact in our global community. Learn more at Fusion92.com.
