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>> Hello, welcome back to theCUBE's coverage
of Monaco Crypto Summit presented by DigitalBits.
It's a conference where a lot of the people
are using DigitalBits
and the industry coming together
around the future of crypto on the Apple case.
We've a great guest, Raj Rajkotia,
founder and CEO of an innovative company,
I love this company, LootMogul.
Raj, thanks for coming on theCUBE, appreciate it.
>> Thank you for having us.
>> So I checked out what you guys are doing.
You've got the sports metaverse angle going on.
It's super valuable,
because sports is super entertaining,
people are engaged,
there's huge fan base,
huge online now,
digital convergence going on with the physical.
You see all kinds of sports betting going on,
now everything's going digital.
There's a whole another consumer experience
going on with sports,
and the game is still the same on the field,
or the court. >> That's correct, yeah.
>> Now it's going to digital,
take a minute to explain what you guys are working on.
>> Yeah.
So yes, we are building out a sports metaverse
where we are bringing athletes,
whether they're NBA stars, NFL stars, WNBA,
many of those athletes,
into metaverse,
giving them the ownership of the entire metaverse commerce
along with gameplay.
So that's something, from our perspective,
this is something that we're focused on.
We're building out stadiums.
Athletes can own stadiums,
athlete can create their own training centers, media hubs.
Imagine Lisa Leslie, for example,
is building out a woman leadership sports academy.
We have Michael Cooper building our defensive academy.
So those are all the brands we have,
174 NBA and WNBA stars,
and we are building out the space.
>> The brand is the platform.
>> That's correct.
>> That's the trend we're seeing.
It's also an extension of their reach in communities,
so they can convert their star power and athlete
with owners approval.
They probably write it all through the contracts.
Jesus, I can imagine all the complications.
But they bring that online
and extend that energy and brand equity
to fans and social network.
>> Yeah. And many of these athletes are tremendous successful
in their Web2 careers, right?
>> Yeah.
>> Some are current athletes,
some are former athletes,
but they have built such a brand persona,
where people are following them on Instagram.
For example, Carlos Boozer,
he has like almost six million followers
between Twitter and Instagram.
And those kind of brands are looking at,
how do I give back to the community?
How do I engage with my community?
And Web3, and especially with our platform,
we are giving that power back to the players.
>> So you guys got some big names, Boozer's on there.
You mentioned, Carlos Boozer,
you mentioned Lisa Leslie, among others,
Michael Cooper, throw back to the old Lakers,
Magic Johnson is kind of actually here in crypto.
We just saw him in the lobbies
and in dinner the other night at Nobu.
You got a lot of NBA support.
Can you explain how you're working this angle?
You got some great traction,
momentum,
you've got a great pedigree,
Riot Games, in your career.
You kind of get the world,
the tech world, the media world,
as it comes together.
What's the secret sauce here?
Is it the NBA relationship,
combination of the team?
Explain.
>> It's really focusing on what...
We are building out a metaverse
focusing on players first.
So players are literally,
we call our platform as owned by the players,
made for the players,
and engagement is really all done through the players.
So that's our key sauce.
And when we worked out with NBA,
we are part of the NBPA acceleration program for 2022,
that is funded by a16z and many others.
Our partnership with league is very critical.
So it's not only partnering with player association,
partner with leagues,
whether it's NBA, WNBA, NFL.
So those are the venues.
This becomes almost a program,
especially for athletes to really generate
this lifetime engagement and royalty model.
Because some of these famous athletes
really want to give back to the communities.
For example, I use Lisa Leslie a lot,
but Lisa Leslie really wants to empower women leadership
and really help women in sports, for example.
So those are the angles
that really people are excited about.
>> Well, for the people watching
that might not understand some of the ins and outs of sports
and Raj, your background and your team.
It's interesting.
The sports teams have been on the big day
to train for many, many years.
You look at all the stadiums,
now they've got mobile devices,
they've got Wi-Fi under the chairs.
They use data and technology to manage the team,
manage their stadium, and venue, and operations,
suppliers, whatnot,
and then also the fans.
They got about a decade or so experience,
already in the digital world.
This is not new to the sports world.
>> Yeah.
>> So you guys come to the table kind of at a good time.
>> Yeah.
Especially the DeFi of the sports.
So there's a DeFi of the finance,
but this is the really a decentralization of the sports,
is something that there's a lot of traction.
And there are many companies
that are really focusing on that.
Our focus obviously is players first.
How do we give power to the players?
And those are really driving the entire engagement,
and also the brands.
>> How does the NBA feel about this?
Because you get the NBA and you get the team,
you got the owners.
I mean the democratization of the players,
which I love, by the way,
that angle kind of brings their power.
Now's it's a new kind of balance of power.
How is the NBA handling this?
What's some of the conversations you've had
with the organization?
>> So obviously there are a lot of things
that people have to be careful about.
They have existing contracts,
existing digital media rights.
So that's something that we have to be very tactful
when we are working with NBA and NBPA,
on what we can say, we cannot say.
Obviously, they have lot of existing
multimillion or billion dollar contracts,
that they cannot void with the web,
because of the evolution of Web3.
>> I love riffing on the notion of contract compliance,
when there's major structural change happening.
Remember back in baseball,
back in the days before the internet,
the franchise rights was geographic territory.
Well, if you're the New York Yankees, you're doing great.
If you're Milwaukee, you're not doing too good.
But then comes the internet.
>> That's correct.
>> There's no geography, there's no boundaries.
>> That's correct.
>> So you're going to have stadiums have virtual...
So again, how do they keep up with the contracts?
I mean, this is going to be a fundamental issue.
>> That's correct.
>> And I think if they don't move,
the players are going to fill that void.
>> That's correct.
And especially with this NIL deal
that happened for the players,
especially college athletes.
So we are in process of onboarding
1.5 million college athletes.
And those athletes are looking for,
not only paying for their tuition or for their colleges,
but also for engagement and generating this early on more.
>> Raj, we're going to make a prediction here in theCUBE,
2020 we're in Monaco,
all the NBA, NHL, the teams,
they're going to be run by player DOWS.
>> Yeah.
>> What do you think?
>> A very good prediction.
A very good prediction.
>> I mean, that's a joke.
I'm joking aside.
I mean, it's kind of connecting the dots,
but whether that happens or not,
what this means is,
if this continues to go down this road.
>> That's correct.
>> The players collectively could come together
and flip the script.
>> And that's the entire decentralization.
The Web3 has really disrupted this industry, as you know,
and I know your community knows that too.
>> Of course we do.
We love it.
>> It's something from sports perspective,
we are very excited.
>> Well, I love it.
Loved talking to you.
Let's get to the weeds here and the product under the hood.
Tell of the roadmap.
Obviously, NFTs are involved.
That's kind of sexy right now.
I get the digital asset model on there,
but there's a lot more under the coverage.
You got to have a platform,
you got to have the big data,
and then ultimately,
align into connecting other systems together.
How do you view the tech roadmap and the product roadmap?
What's your vision?
>> The one thing that you had to be tactful as a company,
whether it's LootMogul or any other startup,
is you have to be really part of the ecosystem.
So the reason why we are here at Monaco,
is that we obviously,
are looking at partnership with DigitalBits,
and those kind of partnership,
whether it's sports centric, metaverse centric,
are very critical for the ecosystem
in the community to grow.
And that's one thing,
you cannot build another isolated metaverse.
So that's one thing.
Many companies have done it, but obviously not-
>> It's a wall garden, it doesn't work.
>> Exactly.
So you have to be more open platform.
So one things that we did early on in our platform,
we have open APIs and SDKs,
where not only you as an athlete
can bring in your other e-commerce,
or Web3 NFTs, or anything you want,
but you can also bring in other real estate properties.
So when we are building out this metaverse,
you start with real estate,
then you build out,
obviously stadiums, and arenas,
and training academies,
but then athletes can bring their web commerce,
whether it's NFT wearables, shoe line, anything-
>> So you look at an ecosystem on top of LootMogul.
I'm almost like,
"You're thinking about a platform as a service and
in a cloud computing paradigm."
>> Yeah.
>> Look different and not decentralized,
but similarly you're enabling others
do the heavy lifting on their behalf.
Is that right?
>> That's correct, yes.
So we are calling ourself
as the sports platform as a service.
So we want to add the word sports,
because in many contexts,
when you're building metaverse,
you can get distracted with them,
especially we're in Los Angeles.
>> Can I get a luxury box for theCUBE
and some of the metaverse islands
and the stadiums you're doing?
>> We are working on it.
We're definitely working on it.
Especially the Los Angeles stadium.
>> Well, we're looking for some hosts,
anyone out there looking for some hosts for the metaverse,
bring your avatar,
you can host theCUBE.
Raj, thanks for coming on theCUBE.
I really appreciate it.
What's next for you guys?
Obviously, continuing to build momentum,
you get your playful.
How many people on the team,
what's going on?
Give a plug for the company.
What are you looking for?
Share with the audience some of your goals.
>> So the main thing we're looking for
is really from a brand perspective,
if you are looking at buying properties
this would be an amazing time to buy virtual sports stadium.
Obviously, we have 175 stadiums in roadmap right now.
We started with Los Angeles,
then we are adding San Francisco, New York, Qatar, Dubai.
So all those sports stadiums,
whether they're basketball, football, soccer,
are all the properties.
And from a community perspective,
if you want to get an early access,
we are all about giving back to the community.
So you can buy it at a much better pre-sale price right now.
So that's one.
The second thing is that,
if you have any innovative ideas
or a player that you want to integrate into,
we have a very open platform
from a community engagement perspective.
If you have something unique from a land sale perspective
or the NFT perspective,
contact us at raj@lootmogul.com.
>> And I'm assuming virtual team,
you're in LA area,
where's your home?
>> So I live in Malibu,
and our office is in Santa Monica.
We have an office in India,
we have a few developers also in Europe.
And then, we are team of 34 people right now.
>> Looking to hire some folk?
>> We are looking for high-
>> What are you looking for?
>> So we are looking for a passionate sports fanatics.
>> That's not hard to find.
>> Who knows how to also code.
So from blockchain perspective, we are chain agnostic.
But obviously right now we are building on polygon,
but we are chain agnostic.
So if you have any blockchain development experience,
that's something we are looking for.
>> Raj, thanks for coming out.
LootMogul, check him out.
I'm John Furrier with theCUBE here in Monaco,
for the Monaco Crypto Summit presented by DigitalBits.
We got all the action.
A lot of great guests going on,
stay with us for more coverage.
I'm John Furrier, thanks for watching.
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