First Class Cabin [Public Due Diligence] In-Depth Report: REVV Motorsport

Source: First Class Cabin Blockchain Research Institute

Project Overview

The NFT market has been continuously expanding since 2017, and integrating real-world IP is one of the development directions for NFTs, recently attracting more attention. There is enormous potential for growth in the NFT sector.

REVV Motorsport is a blockchain racing game ecosystem created by Animoca Brands, belonging to the NFT projects that combine real-world sports IP. Currently, the ecosystem includes racing games such as F1® Delta Time and MotoGP™ Ignition, based on Formula 1 and MotoGP respectively, with plans to release more racing games in the future, indicating significant growth potential.

On the team side, the REVV team is part of Animoca Brands, which has extensive experience in blockchain game development and operation. In the past three years, they have made 37 investments, becoming one of the largest investors in blockchain games and NFT projects.

Dapper Labs is one of the projects they have invested in, while their own projects include The Sandbox, TOWER token, GAMEE, Lympo, and others. The companies under Animoca Brands collaborate closely and can support each other, including participating in REVV Motorsport ecosystem activities to earn tokens like SAND, TOWER, GMEE, etc.

In terms of products, the blockchain racing games are built on existing real-world IP, with a relatively simple overall design that is easy for users to pick up, attracting fans of traditional racing events and racing games.

The REVV Motorsport ecosystem is still in its early development stage, with significant room for conversion in fan economics, which requires attention to the marketing and operational strategies adopted by the project team in the future. Currently, the games in the ecosystem use a "play-to-earn" model to attract more participants.

Regarding tokens, REVV serves as the utility token and in-game currency, allowing users to purchase cars, car parts, drivers, and driver equipment, as well as pay for entry fees. The total token supply is large, with a portion reserved as a reserve for other racing games within the ecosystem. Overall, the token model is designed reasonably.

REVV spans two of the most popular NFT ecosystems: Ethereum and Flow, potentially capturing significant market value. REVV is currently in the early stages of project development, but it is also the largest blockchain racing game on the market, with considerable room for growth. A characteristic of NFT projects that integrate real-world IP is that a particular event can suddenly ignite market enthusiasm, which also relies on external random events.

Basic Overview

1. Project Introduction

REVV Motorsport refers to the racing blockchain game ecosystem created by Animoca Brands, which combines real-world racing IP with NFTs, allowing NFTs to be used in games.

Currently, the racing game ecosystem includes F1® Delta Time and MotoGP™ Ignition, as well as the upcoming Formula E game, with plans to release more racing games in the future. REVV serves as the utility token and in-game currency, allowing users to purchase cars, car parts, drivers, and driver equipment, as well as pay for entry fees.

Animoca Brands is a blockchain game company headquartered in Hong Kong, with rich experience in blockchain game development and operation. Other projects under its umbrella include The Sandbox, TOWER token, GAMEE, Lympo, and more.

Basic Information (Data as of April 2, 2021)

|-------------|--------------------------| | Established | 2018 | | Issued | 2019 | | Country/Region | Australia/Hong Kong | | Sector | Gaming/NFT | | Token Symbol | REVV | | Fundraising Status | N/A | | Market Cap Ranking | #342 | | Current Token Price | $0.512903 | | Circulating Market Cap | $111,804,975 | | Circulating Tokens | 221,478,874 | | Total Token Supply | 3,000,000,000 | | Trading Pairs Listed | 5 | | Major Exchanges | Uniswap, Sushiswap, Kucoin | | Highest Price Since 2018 | 0.632317 (2021.03.30) | | Lowest Price Since 2018 | 0.00935429 (2020.09.21) |

2. Project Details

Funding

In September 2020, the project raised a total of 1,048,950 USD. The funds are used for operations and development[2]. Data sourced from Messari may differ from actual circumstances.

Code

Figure 2-1 Code Submission Counts

Figure 2-2 Number of Code Submitters

The gaming part of the product is expected to run off-chain, with the main code submissions likely being for NFT contract deployments.

Product

Currently, the REVV token supports three games, including F1® Delta Time based on Formula 1 and MotoGP™ Ignition based on MotoGP, as well as the upcoming Formula E game. Both F1® Delta Time and MotoGP™ Ignition include two modules: a collection module and a racing module. The collection module mainly involves NFTs of different combinations related to IP, while the racing module allows users to compete using their cars.

F1® Delta Time

F1 Delta Time is the first blockchain racing game supported by the REVV token, officially licensed by F1 (Formula 1). The collection module gameplay started in 2019, while the racing competition module launched in 2020.

Figure 2-1 Car Assembly Interface

Figure 2-2 Driver Equipment Interface

Figure 2-3 Opensea Equipment Purchase Interface

NFT: Racing equipment includes: energy units, turbochargers, front wings, rear wings, energy storage devices, brakes, gearboxes, suspension systems.
Driver equipment includes: gloves, suits, helmets, boots.
Others: race tracks.
These items can be purchased on Opensea. Players holding racing NFTs can also choose to stake their NFTs to earn REVV, with rarer NFTs yielding higher returns.

Game Modes: Currently, the game is mainly divided into three modes: Grand Prix™ (Grand Prix), Elite (Elite Race), and Time Trial. Different races have different rules. Users who participate in races and rank high can receive rewards. Participation in races requires equipping cars, drivers, and tires.

Time Trial: There are two seasons, 2019 and 2020, held daily on different tracks. Players are divided into four different levels (A, B, C, D) based on their combined scores, with weekly rankings for the top 10 to share rewards.

Grand Prix: Currently, both the 2019 and 2020 seasons are ongoing, with tracks including Italy's Autodromo Nazionale Monza, the UK Silverstone Circuit, Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps, Monaco's Circuit de Monaco, and China's Shanghai International Circuit. Players are ranked based on their combined scores and divided into four different levels (A, B, C, D) to compete for rewards.

MotoGP™ Ignition

MotoGP™ Ignition is a platform based on MotoGP™, built on the Flow blockchain. The game includes two modules: 1) an NFT-based collection module; 2) a competitive module using NFT racing. The first NFT sale for MotoGP™ Ignition took place on March 26.

MotoGP™ is the World Motorcycle Championship, and MotoGP™ Ignition allows MotoGP fans to own and trade NFTs and collectibles related to their favorite motorcycles on the blockchain.

Ignition Complete is the collectibles platform for MotoGP™ Ignition, primarily for NFT cards. Users can purchase card packs, each containing three cards, with each sale having a specific theme. The rarity of the cards varies. For example, the first batch of card packs will be themed around the 2020 season, so all cards in the first sale will be based on the 2020 season, including drivers and motorcycles.

Ignition Legends is the competitive section of MotoGP™ Ignition, requiring users to collect a series of NFTs, including motorcycles, riders, coaches, mechanics, and parts such as silencers, shock absorbers, and brakes. Collected cards can enhance the performance of riders. In addition to racing, players are also responsible for motorcycle maintenance and the condition of riders. Therefore, players need to build a complete team, including mechanics and coaches.

Figure 2-4 Sales Page

Summary: REVV is one of the projects created by Animoca Brands, which has mature game development and operational experience, and multiple blockchain game projects that can collaborate with each other.

REVV aims to combine with real-world racing IP, obtaining licenses and developing NFT products. The advantage of integrating real-world IP is the existing fan base.

There is no need to start from scratch, but the limitation of IP-based NFTs lies in their centralized copyright; if the license is revoked, the value of the NFTs will significantly decrease. One of the focuses of such projects is to convert the original fans of the IP into users of the project, which poses a significant challenge to the team's marketing capabilities. However, Animoca Brands has rich experience in game operation and marketing, giving them a certain advantage.

The team aims to establish the REVV token as the utility token for the blockchain racing game ecosystem, with the second game in the ecosystem just launched, and the overall maturity of the ecosystem will require more time.

Development

1. History

Table 3-1 REVV Progress Details

2. Current Status

The second racing game in the REVV ecosystem, MotoGP™ Ignition, has been deployed on the Flow blockchain and conducted its first NFT sale, with the initial sale allowing credit card payments, and subsequent payments to be made using REVV.

3. Future

The recent focus of the REVV ecosystem is MotoGP™ Ignition, which will complete auctions and hold events in succession.

F1 Delta Time will periodically hold "play-to-earn" activities.

Economic Model

1. Supply

The total supply of REVV tokens is 3 billion.

Table 4-1 Initial Token Distribution & Current Uncirculated Tokens

According to Table 4-1, the current circulating supply of REVV is approximately 230 million tokens, accounting for about 8% of the total token supply. The reserve tokens for F1® Delta Time's competition rewards will continue to be released. With the recent launch of MotoGP™ Ignition, this portion of tokens may migrate to the Flow blockchain and be gradually released, with specific release conditions adjusted according to game development.

2. Demand

REVV is a utility token within the game, used for various purposes, including but not limited to:
1) Purchasing in-game items (various NFTs);
2) Paying for entry fees to participate in races: as admission fees for Grand Prix and Time Trials;
3) Game rewards: participating players will receive corresponding rewards based on their performance in races;
4) Staking: players can stake REVV to directly earn REVV rewards or NFTs.

Summary: REVV will serve as the utility token for a series of racing projects within the ecosystem, currently supporting the two racing games F1® Delta Time and MotoGP™ Ignition. As the REVV ecosystem creates more racing projects, a portion of the reserve tokens will be released. The distribution of REVV tokens is reasonable, and there are fixed use cases.

Competition

1. Overview
The niche market for REVV is: sports IP NFTs.

NFT stands for non-fungible token, referring to tokens that are unique, indivisible, and have a minimum unit of 1, such as tokenized game items, tickets, artworks, etc. Currently, there are two NFT token standards, including ERC-721 and ERC-1155. The essence of NFTs based on these two standards is the same, but NFTs based on the ERC-1155 standard have advantages in batch trading and other aspects. NFTs are mainly classified into six categories: art, collectibles, virtual reality, gaming, utility items, and sports, specifically defined as: · Art: Content generated or traded in NFT form by markets, projects, or individuals, represented by projects like Super Rare, Known Origin, etc.

· Collectibles: Projects primarily focused on issuing collectible NFTs. These tokens can be used in games or for player interactions, represented by projects like Crypto Punks, Crypto Kitties, etc.

· Gaming: NFTs within video games, including card games, role-playing games, etc., represented by projects like Axie Infinity, Gods Unchained, etc.

· Virtual Reality: Projects providing virtual reality experiences for users, typically accessed via computers, 3D devices, or mobile phones, represented by projects like Decentraland, The Sandbox, etc.

· Sports: Typically related to athletes and teams in the real world, including motorsports, football clubs, basketball teams, etc., represented by projects like SoRare, F1 Delta Time, ZED Run, etc.

· Utility Items: Can include domain names granting access, tickets, and ownership of assets, etc.

Note: There are other classification standards for NFTs in the market.

2. Industry Status

The first NFT project born from blockchain was Crypto Kitties (NFT game). Since the launch of Crypto Kitties in 2017, the NFT market has existed for over three years, with rapid growth in market value, from $40,961,223 in 2018 to $338,035,012 in 2020, roughly a sevenfold increase, as shown in the figure below:

Figure 5-1 NFT Market Value from 2018 to 2020

Compared to 2018 and 2019, the number of active addresses, buyers, sellers, and transaction volume in the NFT market saw significant breakthroughs in 2020, as illustrated in Figure 5-2:

Figure 5-2 NFT Trading Data from 2018 to 2020

As seen in Figure 5-3, the trading volume of sports-related NFT projects began to grow rapidly from mid-2020. From 2020 to 2021, creating NFTs by combining real-world IP has become a new trend in the NFT market, with platforms like NBA Top Shot and SoRare leveraging fan economics to achieve breakthroughs.

Figure 5-3 NFT Market Share by Subfield

3. Competing Projects

Currently, the NFT sector is still in its early development stage, and the market is not saturated. REVV does not need to compete directly with other IP racing projects. Since there are no other well-known racing IP projects in the market, we will compare projects related to football and basketball IP to explore the development prospects and constraints of racing IP. Representative projects include NBA Top Shot (basketball) and SoRare (football).

NBA Top Shot

NBA Top Shot is an NFT product jointly launched by Dapper Labs and the NBA (National Basketball Association). This platform allows NBA enthusiasts to purchase, collect, or trade digital cards of iconic player moments authorized by the NBA, such as dunks, long-range three-pointers, and game-winning shots that excite fans.

Since its launch in October 2020, NBA Top Shot has accumulated over $300 million in sales, with transaction volume continuing to grow.

In addition to trading and collecting features, the team plans to develop a 3D game mode called Hardcourt, where users can assemble teams and control players. With a large fan base for the NBA and a long history of star card collecting, driven by investments from NBA stars like Spencer Dinwiddie, Andre Iguodala, and JaVale McGee, the market is quite active.

NBA Top Shot charges a 5% transaction fee on trades, with a portion of the fee going to the NBA and the basketball association.

SoRare

SoRare is a blockchain-based football game where players can trade player cards and participate in matches. The cards in the game are limited in supply and vary in rarity, with rarer cards performing better in the game. Additionally, this game has been recognized and authorized by 126 football clubs.

There are three channels for purchasing collectible cards: 1) At the beginning of the season, SoRare releases a certain number of new cards, which users can bid for in the "New Signing" market; 2) Purchase from secondary markets like Opensea; 3) Win cards by participating in games.

Game Mode: SoRare has designed seasons and various events for players to freely participate in. In SoRare, each new season lasts four days, and events are organized where only cards with specific attributes can participate. Players need to form a team of five players, including a goalkeeper, defenders, midfielders, forwards, and substitutes, and submit their team without further operation.

Scores will be assigned based on the real-world performance of each player during the game season, and all players' scores will be ranked to distribute rewards. It is important to note that injured or rested players cannot participate in matches during the season.

4. Competitive Comparison

Fan Base

Figure 5-4 Google Keyword Search Popularity

Note: Popularity only represents the search frequency of the keyword itself over time, rather than a horizontal comparison with other keywords.

As seen in Figure 5-4, the popularity of F1, NBA, and football has shown intermittent growth throughout the year, likely related to the timing of competitions. The popularity of the keyword F1 has not changed significantly from 2004 to 2021, while the popularity of the keywords NBA and Football has increased year by year. It can be roughly inferred that the fan base for F1 racing has not changed much, while the fan bases for football and basketball have expanded annually.

Figure 5-5 Keyword Popularity by Region

From Figure 5-5, it can be seen that fans of racing, football, and basketball are generally spread across the globe (Asian regions typically use English searches less frequently, but there is still a certain number of football fans).

F1 racing fans are mainly concentrated in North and South America, Europe, China, and Australia, while the NBA is primarily focused in North and South America, China, and Australia. Football fans are concentrated in North America, Africa, and Australia. Thus, it can be concluded that the main fan bases for different sports have differences and do not overlap 100%. Users of blockchain sports IP projects also differ, and there is no competitive relationship.

Table 5-1 Twitter Follower Counts

Table 5-2 Twitter Follower Counts

From the comparison of Tables 5-1 and 5-2, it can be seen that F1 Delta Time and MotoGP™ Ignition have significant room for conversion in terms of fan economics.

Transaction Volume

Table 5-3 Secondary Market Trading Data for the Past 7 Days

*Note: MotoGP™ Ignition trading data is currently unavailable.

F1 Delta Time is built on the Ethereum blockchain, while MotoGP™ Ignition is built on the Flow blockchain, addressing the issue of high transaction fees.

Summary: NFTs are still in the early stages of development, with the market expanding year by year, showing significant growth potential. "IP + NFT" is one of the development directions for NFTs, and blockchain projects can benefit from the existing fan economy of the original IP. The fan numbers for Formula 1 and MotoGP are relatively considerable, and F1 Delta Time and MotoGP™ Ignition still have significant room for conversion in fan economics.

The REVV ecosystem will span both the Ethereum and Flow ecosystems, with F1 Delta Time built on Ethereum and MotoGP™ Ignition built on Flow. Ethereum, as the birthplace of NFTs, has a very mature NFT infrastructure and ecosystem, with a large number of NFT players.

Meanwhile, the Flow blockchain has drastically reduced transaction fees, lowering the barriers to participation and interaction, making it the most popular NFT platform outside of Ethereum. REVV is deployed across the two largest NFT ecosystems, facing a vast market and is expected to attract a massive user base.

Animoca Brands is a well-known blockchain game company with rich experience in game development and marketing. It has multiple game projects under its umbrella, allowing for resource sharing and user base collaboration, potentially forming a strong brand influence to create its own NFT gaming universe and player ecosystem.

Team

1. Background Information
The parent company of REVV is Animoca Brands.

Animoca Brands was founded by Yat Siu in 2014 and is headquartered in Hong Kong. It was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2015 but was delisted in March 2020 due to involvement in cryptocurrency-related activities, although the company's operations continue normally. Animoca Brands has collaborated with or acquired companies including: Pixowl (The Sandbox team), TicBits, nWay, iCandy Interactive, Sky Mavis (Axie Infinity team), Dapper Labs (CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot team), Lympo, GAMEE, Quidd, OpenSea, Harmony, Bitski, and Alien Worlds.

2. Core Team

Yat Siu, Founder of Animoca Brands, previously served as Executive Director at the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and the Austrian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong; he joined Barunson (a high-end product design and manufacturing company) in 2001 as Executive Director and also served as Project Director at Typhoon Games during the same period.

Robby Yung, CEO of Animoca Brands, is a member of the advisory board for the UK mobile gaming forum, an investor in Schmap, and a director at several internet and gaming companies including TicBits Ltd, Leade.rs, GAMEE, Gamma Innovations, Inc, and nWay Inc; he joined Outblaze as a director in September 2012 and has concurrently served as a director at Animoca since then.

Ibrahim El-Mouelhy, Founding Member and CCO, joined Animoca in January 2011. He has served as Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications and was officially appointed COO of Animoca in 2014; simultaneously, he has been the CCO of Outblaze for over 20 years, bringing extensive industry experience.

Issac Poon, Marketing Communications Manager, joined Outblaze as a project researcher in June 2012 and joined Animoca Brands in April 2019.

Alejandro Dini, Chief 2D Art Designer, has over 20 years of design experience, having worked at companies including SilverCorn in Hong Kong, Lisa Frank in the USA, and Tree & Me in Hong Kong. He joined Animoca in January 2011 as a Senior DevOps Engineer.

Michael Guo, Software Engineer, joined Animoca Brands in October 2019. He obtained a Bachelor of Applied Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2016 and a Master of Science in Big Data Technology from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2019; he began software development in the internet industry in 2012 and has held software development positions at companies such as Renegade Digital Media, Rogers Communications, Epicor Software, and EveryBit.

Nathan Sala, Engineering Lead at Animoca Brands, has over 10 years of development experience in the internet industry, having interned at NOK Airlines in 2008 to develop a flight booking system. He subsequently interned at Astrium and the National Institute of Informatics in Japan; starting in 2010, he worked as a development engineer at IRIT, Margoconseil, and BNP Paribas; in 2018, he joined Anquan as a blockchain architect; since 2017, he has also served as co-founder and CEO of Goala Ltd, and in August 2018, he became the Engineering Lead at Animoca Brands, bringing rich blockchain development experience.

Sean Dudley, Product Manager at Animoca Brands, previously worked as a product quality assurance engineer on projects like Kameo and Xbox 360 at Rare Ltd.

He has also served as a product quality assurance supervisor on multiple projects, leading testing for Nintendo DS titles since 2007; after spending over a year as a product quality manager at Outblaze from 2010 to 2012, he joined Animoca in April 2012 and was appointed as the General Product Manager this January.

Stephen Lee, Game Art Designer, began his career in animation companies as an illustrator and character designer in 2014; he worked as a junior designer at Luv Galaxy in 2017 and then joined Animoca as a game art designer in 2018, accumulating years of experience in game graphics.

Tina Leung, Art Director at Animoca Brands, started her career as a graphic designer in 2013, working at iMusictech, SGI Venture Limited, and Madhead; she became a project manager at Gomilab in October 2016. After leaving Gomilab, she joined Animoca Brands to work on game and UI art design, officially becoming the Art Director in May 2020.

Vidhvat Madan, Software Engineer at Animoca Brands, graduated from Dekhi University in 2013 with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science; he then studied game development at the University of Austin Texas in 2015; he joined Arkavis as a game developer in 2017.

During the same period, he also worked as a game developer at QUICKTEQUILA, accumulating nearly 8 years of experience in the game development industry since May 2013, and subsequently joined Animoca Brands as a software engineer in October 2019.