Major League Soccer (MLS) is experiencing a new growth phase, fuelled by increasing viewership, attendances and revenue, which in large part can be attributed to the Argentinian legend Lionel Messi arriving in Miami last summer.
In a bid to build a sustainable, core fanbase for decades to come, the league recently partnered with gamified blockchain specialists Sweet to launch MLS QUEST, an interactive digital collectibles game that brings online and in-person benefits.
Speaking on how the MLS partnership and MLS QUEST came to be, Sweet CEO and Founder, Tom Mizzone, revealed to Insider Sport why digital collectible games are becoming so prominent across multiple sports leagues and blockchain’s growing influence on the world of sports.
Insider Sport: Firstly Tom, when did the MLS first approach Sweet regarding MLS QUEST and what were some of the initial ideas behind the game?
Tom Mizzone: Sweet has been collaborating closely with MLS on MLS QUEST for quite some time. From our very first discussions with both the league and the MLSPA, there was a strong alignment around creating a fan-first program that would be both engaging and rewarding.
We set out with a clear vision: let’s prioritise building a fun, interactive experience for fans, while integrating the core principles of blockchain and Web3 seamlessly — without making those elements the main focus. That’s where we feel many other platforms have missed the mark.
With MLS QUEST, the goal was to bring fans even closer to the game and their favourite players. We wanted to create a platform that allows fans to relive and celebrate iconic plays and moments from the season in a gamified way. Fans can unlock rewards, tickets, merchandise, and exclusive experiences, making it an immersive journey that connects them to the sport they love.
IS: Of course, trying to differentiate yourselves from other competitors, are there certain mechanics that you identified from similar games that translated to MLS QUEST without it being too overbearing on the crypto aspect?
TM: We want MLS QUEST to appeal to both the crypto community and traditional sports fans, so it’s crucial not to lean too heavily into the Web3 aspect, which can alienate or confuse fans who are just looking for an engaging digital collectibles experience.
In MLS QUEST, fans collect game pieces called “Key Play of the Game Medallions.” Each medallion is linked to a specific highlight, representing not just standout individual moments, but also the most exciting matches throughout the season. These key plays tell a story, taking fans back to incredible moments that resonate with them.
We’ve designed this experience to feel intuitive for any sports fan. The concept of “key plays” is already familiar to fans who watch MLS on platforms like ESPN or SportsCenter. We’ve captured these iconic moments, minted them on the blockchain, and assigned them rarity tiers—core, limited, rare, and epic—based on their significance.
The gameplay is straightforward: collect all the key plays from a game, and when you complete a set of four, you unlock an MLS reward bag. These reward bags offer opportunities for exclusive merchandise, tickets, and other digital rewards, bridging the excitement of live sports with a unique collectible experience.
There’s also layers and layers of progression and depth that go beyond that. But that simple premise, we think fans are going to understand, with hundreds of thousands of dollars of rewards to unlock moments and the highlights. The ownership of that is also extremely special.
Insider Sport: Why are digital collectible games becoming so prominent from sports leagues as a vehicle to engage and grow their respective younger audiences?
I’ve got phrases I like to use and one of them is, ‘don’t phone in the important part’. I feel as if a lot of the games that flounder or fail are so focused on the merits of the tech and where the tech is going, but not the actual consumer experience.
It’s the games that really focus on the gameplay and the fundamentals that I think have done that really well and are attracting new users. And then obviously, the quality of the content, the quality of experience, all that’s incredibly important.
These are incredible athletes. I get blown away every time I watch some of these plays and what they’re able to do. That alone is a really important part of the mechanics, and we’re fortunate enough to have these iconic plays that everybody likes to watch.
If you mix incredible game content with really fun game mechanics, now you’ve got magic. So that’s kind of how we think about it.
Insider Sport: When it pertains to the in-person benefits of MLS QUEST, how was Sweet able to translate MLS desires for these in-person experiences?
Tom Mizzone: We’ve really invested a lot of engineering and technology into broadscale distribution. We did some things early on with Burger King putting QR codes on six million meal boxes, and we blew people’s minds with this ability to go in and buy a mealbox. You could go in, scan a mealbox and get the digital collectible on the blockchain in an instant, and then we put them into these gamified sets.
We call this broad scale distribution technology, and it was such a natural fit for MLS QUEST. We can break these key plays into pick up zones, with the aim that fans will hopefully start to pay attention to other initiatives that are important to MLS.
Make sure you’re watching a certain game because there might be a flash to get your next key play medallion, and also pay attention to what we’re posting across social media. It’s the democratisation of the game, where you can actually be in-person collecting these plays and also provide value to the League.
IS: In terms of blockchain, it’s still in its relative infancy, but it’s garnering more of an involvement within sports. From your perspective, how much potential does blockchain have to be integrated into club operations, but then also, the fan engagement aspect as well?
TM: I agree it’s still in its very early days despite that it feels like an eternity. We’re really in the first inning, the early, early days of blockchain-based collectibles. I think the use cases are tremendous, particularly around fan engagement, ticketing, fan loyalty, and access.
Way back in its first days when blockchain was first hitting, there were so many articles about how it was going to transform every industry, like retail, transportation, and I think in some ways, it didn’t live up to those grandiose expectations.
However, in the case of collectibles, fan engagement and tickets and just being able to remember events that you’ve been to, it’s a great tool.
There’s so many lanes of opportunity for this technology. For example, hang tags on jerseys where you can receive a digital twin or a special collectible with the physical merch. That could provide authenticity for the actual jersey, but then give you access to something more on the secondary market, where you’re selling this jersey, but it also comes with the original collectible as proof of authenticity or chain of ownership.
We really love the collectibles lane and see a big shift moving towards digital collectibles. If you’re into sports memorabilia, it’s a natural move for those types of collectors, and then you can couple that with fun gameplay because of your ownership, and then you have a really magical situation.
IS: Lastly, and thank you for your time Tom, how important has Lionel Messi’s arrival been to the overall growth of MLS?
TM: I don’t want to speak on behalf of MLS, but I think it’s obvious to everyone he’s had an incredible impact with more people paying attention, as well as other athletes wanting to come over too. It was a phenomenal move.
I don’t know the exact numbers, but I was blown away by the MLS attendance in comparison to those of some other US-based pro sports leagues. Hopefully he’ll be around for the next World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico, with the final being right in my backyard at MetLife Stadium.
