ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Karate Combat, the world’s leading full-contact striking league, announced today that it will become the first sports league to transfer its governance to its fans and athletes through the formation of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) in December 2022.
Under the DAO structure, $KARATE token holders will determine the league’s budget, resource allocation, supplier selection, marketing strategy, rule changes and – within boundaries set by the fight group league operations – fighter contracts and match-to-match options.
Since its public debut in 2018, Karate Combat has become one of the fastest growing sports franchises in the world. It has television broadcast distribution in more than 100 countries through partnerships with leading media properties including CBS Sports, Globo, Eurosport, BeIN Sports and ESPN Deportes. In addition, Karate Combat events are simultaneously streamed for free on leading global platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and TikTok.
The league’s August event, “Karate Combat 35,” set a league record at approximately 6.6 million digital views, and Karate Combat surpassed 143 million digital video views that month. The league has built an online community of more than 3.5 million fans, with more than 1.2 million followers on Instagram, 1.1 million on Facebook, and 860,000 on TikTok.
“From the beginning, Karate Combat has pioneered new concepts in sports entertainment – from our signature fighting pit to our groundbreaking virtual production using the Unreal Engine,” said Adam Kovacs, Karate Combat President. “The world of sports must evolve to increase engagement with a new generation of fans who have grown up with social media and digital gaming. They expect to be active participants in the action, rather than passive spectators. When DAO launches, Karate Combat fans and fighters will participate in governance, providing an unmatched level of interaction and engagement at all levels of our community.”
The DAO launch is part of Karate Combat’s landmark, three-year sponsorship agreement with The HBAR Foundation, an organization that fosters the development of the Hedera ecosystem. Hedera’s landmark sponsorship begins in May of 2022 as part of the league’s “Season 4” programming. The league has previously formed partnerships with SushiSwap and Epic Games Unreal Engine, which is Karate Combat’s unique combination of live action and immersive CGI environments.
“Karate Combat’s large and rapidly growing fanbase will bring several new users to the Hedera network, all of whom will benefit from the network’s low-cost fixed transactions, real-time settlement, high security standards, and no equal maintenance. In expanding Hedera’s reach to new groups, our goal is to onboard use cases that have tangible, real-world impact for end-users. Web3 Tools’ Karate Combat application provides exactly that,” said Shayne Higdon, Co-Founder and CEO at The HBAR Foundation.
Karate Combat will give away half of the $KARATE management tokens over time to its community via an airdrop on the Hedera blockchain. The airdrop coincides with the launch of the Karate Combat mobile app, which will allow fans to seamlessly claim their tokens and participate in the league’s unbeatable gaming application called ‘Up Only Gaming.’ No purchase is required for fans to download league applications, or to claim $KARATE tokens.
In sports gambling, participants bet their capital and incur potential losses. Conversely, Karate Combat token holders will be rewarded with extra $KARATE tokens for successfully predicting Karate Combat winners, but will not incur losses for wrong picks.
Earlier this year, the league was sold to the Sensei Foundation, a Cayman Islands Foundation Company, and a subsidiary of the Sensei Foundation BVI, a purpose trust established in the British Virgin Islands to promote the league and the sport of karate. The league is committed to an open decentralization model that will feature unprecedented transparency, fan control over intellectual property, and developer incentives to foster a vast and evolving Karate Combat Universe, developed by community.
Karate Combat fans can read the league’s draft whitepaper and join the app and airdrop waitlist at karate.com/airdrop.
The league’s next event, Karate Combat 36, will take place on October 29, 2022, live from Universal Studios’ Backlot in Orlando, Florida. Tickets are on sale now at www.karate.com/tickets.
About Karate Combat
Karate Combat is the premier striking league in the world and the first sports league structured as a DAO. The league is also the only global leader to blend live-action sports with immersive CGI environments powered by the Epic Games Unreal gaming engine. World champions and olympic medalists from around the world compete in eight different weight divisions in pursuit of the Karate Combat World Championship belts and will participate in token-based management. Karate Combat is owned by the Sensei Foundation, a Cayman Islands Foundation Company, and a subsidiary of the Sensei Foundation BVI, a purpose trust established in the British Virgin Islands to promote the league and the sport of karate. For more information, please visit www.Karate.com
About The HBAR Foundation
The HBAR Foundation supports the creation of Web3 communities built on the Hedera network, by empowering and funding developers to build these communities. The Foundation’s six funds – dedicated to Crypto Economy, Metaverse, Sustainability, Fintech, Privacy, and Female Founder – each support communities within those areas, and the linkage enables applications to participate as part of a larger ecosystem. The collective power of these funds enables entrepreneurs, developers, and businesses of all sizes to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems, and create and control their own economies, all built on public Hedera network. Whether you’re building a new or migrating an existing EVM-based application and community, the HBAR Foundation is here to support you. For more information, please visit https://hbarfoundation.org/. To apply for a grant from the foundation, please visit https://www.hbarfoundation.org/apply or follow the Foundation on Twitter @HBAR_foundation.
About Hedera
The Hedera network is the most widely used, sustainable, enterprise-grade public ledger for the decentralized economy. The platform is managed by a council of the world’s leading organizations, including Avery Dennison, Boeing, Chainlink Labs, Dentons, Deutsche Telekom, DLA Piper, DBS Bank, EDF (Électricité de France), eftpos, FIS (WorldPay), Google , IBM , the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), LG Electronics, London School of Economics, Magalu, Nomura Holdings, ServiceNow, Shinhan Bank, Standard Bank Group, Swirlds, Tata Communications, Ubisoft, University College London (UCL), Wipro, and Zain Group.
For more information, visit www.hedera.com, or follow us on Twitter at @hedera, Telegram at t.me/hederahashgraph, or Discord at www.hedera.com/discord. The Hedera whitepaper can be found at www.hedera.com/papers.