16 ms·

NBA Metaverse Partner Terminates Relationship, Threatens Reporters Covering Deal

173 points by pkilgore 5y ago

duxup 5y ago
Would love to hear the backstory on how this deal ever happened. Granted sports organizations and can be as dysfunctional as any organization, but you would hope they would do a little vetting of who they make deals with.
- awb 5y ago
  Back story: https://defector.com/what-the-hell-is-this-company-the-76ers-just-partnered-with/ https://defector.com/what-the-hell-is-this-company-the-76ers... HN discussion of the backstory: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29682102 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29682102
  - duxup 5y ago
    Doesn’t quite tell me how the deal got made with this almost non existent company.
    - awb 5y ago
      I think that’s part of why this is such an intriguing story. It smells of fraud and I’m sure more is yet to come.
- tclancy 5y ago
  Trust the process.
- Animats 5y ago
  Some years back, one of the major English football teams, Southhampton FC, had a partnering deal with Banc De Binary.[1] BDB was a leading company in the binary options industry, which was a total scam. The Times of Israel started a series, "The Wolves of Tel Aviv", and blew the whole thing apart.[2] For months, the Times of Israel kept pounding on this story. It took quite a while. At peak, something like 40% of the Israeli finance industry was binary option scams. Some of the scammers were well connected politically. Amazingly, it was legal in Israel to run financial scams against non-Israelis. That changed only when it became an international embarrassment big enough to hurt the country's image. Some of the scammers pivoted to crypto. Others moved operations to Bulgaria. But none of them seem to have gone to jail in Israel. Some were caught in the US or the EU and did go to jail there. [1] https://financefeeds.com/we-lobby-southampton-fc-on-why-they-are-taking-sponsorship-from-fraudulent-binary-options-firms/ https://financefeeds.com/we-lobby-southampton-fc-on-why-they... [2] https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-wolves-of-tel-aviv-israels-vast-amoral-binary-options-scam-exposed/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-wolves-of-tel-aviv-israels...
  - duxup 5y ago
    That’s terrible, I gotta think even a high level vetting would set off alarm bells with something like that.
04rob 5y ago
Background: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29682102 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29682102
colpabar 5y ago
footage of a meeting between the NBA and the "metaverse partner" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8f-BQFo7lw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8f-BQFo7lw
- adoxyz 5y ago
  first thing I thought of lol. I can't believe South Park is as solid as ever when it comes to capturing the absurdity of cultural phenomena.
  - AlwaysRock 5y ago
    All they give butters is a piece of paper and he uses that to break out of a mental asylum, spread chaos, and sell nfts. Incredible.
- beebeepka 5y ago
  You lure your customers in, and then you fuck them with some NFTs. You can't just sell food to people. Thing is, people have been shelling real money for virtual items for a long time. Remember MMOs, hell even Diablo? Team Fortress 2 and the whole hats money making machine? Well, now all that is going to end up mainstream. I don't like it one bit but status symbols have been around since before there were humans. You can see this shit in animal societies, too
  - fullshark 5y ago
    Everyone knows there's SOME sort of market for NFTs, if you spend your life terminally online, it makes sense that you'd be interested in status symbols for them. Or if you play a game, you'd want items that give you a leg up or have some aesthetic appeal. I can even see a situation like some magic the gathering cards, where an NFT in a particular game could gain value over time if the game has a contingent of diehards and the NFT provides some unique ability. But the whole thing seems so craven, just like freemium games that south park also skewered, based on taking advantage of some addicts/clout chasers who crave the rush of some digital bits attached to their avatars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2luhwy3KAE0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2luhwy3KAE0
mattress 5y ago
LOL I’m pretty sure the screenshot of “their” avatar creation is actually from Forza Horizon character customization screen
- discardedrefuse 5y ago
  It is! The author of the article is aware.
seanhunter 5y ago
"...this would seem a strange time for the 76ers to end their contract with Color Star, the Cayman Islands-registered, Dubai-based ready-mix concrete outfit pivoting to Web3 technology and hyping the forthcoming launch of a celeb-populated metaverse" Such a fantastic quote
- pjmorris 5y ago
  Perfect. It sounds like something Matt Levine would either mock or write.
  - tata71 5y ago
    But what about Matt Finestone?
- moneywoes 5y ago
  no redflags at all
  - myvoiceismypass 5y ago
    None. Not even the Color Star CEO being a mysterious person named “Sir Lucas Capetian”...
vernie 5y ago
It's always nice when an older generation of shyster tries to get into the latest tech fad.
- dylan604 5y ago
  Let's go boomers! What's sad is when the younger gen can't get into the older scams.
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
This company feels like a combination of every shady business person and wantrepreneur I’ve ever crossed paths with. Bombastic CEO who thinks he can skip the “make it” part of “fake it till you make it” and then strongarm his way past any obstacles with legal threats. The way the CEO misspells NY (New York) as “MY” in his own e-mail signature is a fitting touch.
- mtalantikite 5y ago
  Also what is with that address, A108 Adam Street with a Manhattan zip code that doesn’t exist? Google seems to place it at City Hall Park in lower Manhattan, which definitely isn’t a place that receives mail. There’s also a long list of scammy looking companies using that address. Edit: also looks like Google maps places it at the park down by Dumbo. Very weird.
  - nkurz 5y ago
    Yes, searching for that does produce a bunch of odd results, many of which use "info@example.com" as their email address and literal "Lorem ipsum" as description : https://www.google.com/search?q=%22A108+Adam+Street%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22A108+Adam+Street%22 Some of the results also include the odd term "Bootstrap Template". Perhaps there is some web building tool that uses this address as the filler text on a template page?
    - notyourday 5y ago
      It is a total scam - there's no such address in 10006. Anyone who is a CEO is not going to have an address of the office written incorrectly. The scammer(s) have not spent any time in NY hence they do not know that New York, NY is Manhattan but Brooklyn, NY is Brooklyn even though both are in New York City, NY What is mind boggling in that some idiots at 76ers and NBA got swindled by clearly a non-existent entity.
      - usrusr 5y ago
        Putting the virtual in virtual reality, can't fault them for inconsistency if nothing is real on any level.
stdgy 5y ago
This might be my favorite story of the year. So many weird twists and turns. It has to be some kind of money laundering operation, right?
- moate 5y ago
  Feels to me like "con-man capitalist took the con too far and people started pay attention to how much of a con this sounds like".
- TigeriusKirk 5y ago
  This is one of the very few times I agree with an online assertion that money laundering is a plausible explanation.
mdoms 5y ago
Can someone translate the first sentence of the article for me? I have literally no idea what any of this means. > Eagle-eyed viewers of Friday night’s Celtics-76ers tilt in Philadelphia will have noticed a sudden absence of the ubiquitous Color Star banners recently seen splashed on every available flat surface inside the home team’s arena
- ryandamm 5y ago
  In case you're not being facetious: It just means that Color Star's advertisements are no longer visible in the 76ers' arena (because the partnership was terminated).
- Infinitesimus 5y ago
  Celtics vs 76ers game last Friday. NBA games tend to have a lot of banner ads and anyone paying attention could have noticed that there were no Color Star banners to be seen during the game.
- chrisoverzero 5y ago
  > Last night, the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers played a basketball game in an arena in Philadelphia. If you were looking carefully (I write sarcastically), you may have noticed that the interior of the arena looks different from how it has recently – the advertisements for Color Star, which had been everywhere (I write hyperbolically), were now missing.
  - mdoms 5y ago
    Thank you. The article assumes I know a lot of background: what Celtics-76ers is (apparently two basketball teams), what a "Celtics-76ers tilt" is (a match between them?), what Color Star is, that their banners (advertisements?) are ubiquitous...
    - chrisoverzero 5y ago
      Defector is a sports website, so I think they can safely assume some background knowledge.
pessimizer 5y ago
Descriptions of the alleged product in the article confirm that the metaverse is a cheap knockoff of Habbo Hotel.
- reaperducer 5y ago
  Reminds me of Rabbitjack's Casino on QuantumLink in 1986.
moneywoes 5y ago
How can a person like this fool a billion + organization?
- notyourday 5y ago
  Because people who run the a billion+ organizations are imbeciles that who don't know how to wipe their own ass without a team of twenty people providing support. So it is just the question of being introduced to the people who tell those that run the organizations what to do. It is not that difficult is those that that tell those who runs the organizations are properly incentivised.
faangiq 5y ago
Amazing article.
gzer0 5y ago
Is there any reason why the press release thumbnail is a picture of a Fortnite lobby? This has gotten to the point where it transcends even the most bat-shit insane people; this has to be an elaborate troll or they are delusional.
trembonator 5y ago
penjelly 5y ago
metaverse is a word im already sick of
toomanyrichies 5y ago
The following is pretty far down on the list of facets of this story which are straight-up bonkers, but... I would think that any threat of legal action on Color Star's part is an empty one, since that would mean "Lucas Capetian" would have to appear (either in-person or via video) for the purposes of a legal deposition. That seems unlikely, given "his" reticence to appear in public or reveal anything at all about his true identity. Those with legal expertise, feel free to weigh in here.
- pkilgore 5y ago
  His company would have to appear, sure. But not him. And by "appear" I mean, hire a lawyer and designate a 30(b)(6) witness. I'd definitely subpoena him. But it can take a lot of money to get to that point...

173 points by pkilgore 5y ago

Would love to hear the backstory on how this deal ever happened. Granted sports organizations and can be as dysfunctional as any organization, but you would hope they would do a little vetting of who they make deals with.

awb 5y ago
Back story: https://defector.com/what-the-hell-is-this-company-the-76ers-just-partnered-with/ https://defector.com/what-the-hell-is-this-company-the-76ers... HN discussion of the backstory: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29682102 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29682102
- duxup 5y ago
  Doesn’t quite tell me how the deal got made with this almost non existent company.
  - awb 5y ago
    I think that’s part of why this is such an intriguing story. It smells of fraud and I’m sure more is yet to come.
tclancy 5y ago
Trust the process.
Animats 5y ago
Some years back, one of the major English football teams, Southhampton FC, had a partnering deal with Banc De Binary.[1] BDB was a leading company in the binary options industry, which was a total scam. The Times of Israel started a series, "The Wolves of Tel Aviv", and blew the whole thing apart.[2] For months, the Times of Israel kept pounding on this story. It took quite a while. At peak, something like 40% of the Israeli finance industry was binary option scams. Some of the scammers were well connected politically. Amazingly, it was legal in Israel to run financial scams against non-Israelis. That changed only when it became an international embarrassment big enough to hurt the country's image. Some of the scammers pivoted to crypto. Others moved operations to Bulgaria. But none of them seem to have gone to jail in Israel. Some were caught in the US or the EU and did go to jail there. [1] https://financefeeds.com/we-lobby-southampton-fc-on-why-they-are-taking-sponsorship-from-fraudulent-binary-options-firms/ https://financefeeds.com/we-lobby-southampton-fc-on-why-they... [2] https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-wolves-of-tel-aviv-israels-vast-amoral-binary-options-scam-exposed/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-wolves-of-tel-aviv-israels...
- duxup 5y ago
  That’s terrible, I gotta think even a high level vetting would set off alarm bells with something like that.

04rob 5y ago

Background: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29682102 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29682102

colpabar 5y ago

footage of a meeting between the NBA and the "metaverse partner" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8f-BQFo7lw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8f-BQFo7lw

adoxyz 5y ago
first thing I thought of lol. I can't believe South Park is as solid as ever when it comes to capturing the absurdity of cultural phenomena.
- AlwaysRock 5y ago
  All they give butters is a piece of paper and he uses that to break out of a mental asylum, spread chaos, and sell nfts. Incredible.
beebeepka 5y ago
You lure your customers in, and then you fuck them with some NFTs. You can't just sell food to people. Thing is, people have been shelling real money for virtual items for a long time. Remember MMOs, hell even Diablo? Team Fortress 2 and the whole hats money making machine? Well, now all that is going to end up mainstream. I don't like it one bit but status symbols have been around since before there were humans. You can see this shit in animal societies, too
- fullshark 5y ago
  Everyone knows there's SOME sort of market for NFTs, if you spend your life terminally online, it makes sense that you'd be interested in status symbols for them. Or if you play a game, you'd want items that give you a leg up or have some aesthetic appeal. I can even see a situation like some magic the gathering cards, where an NFT in a particular game could gain value over time if the game has a contingent of diehards and the NFT provides some unique ability. But the whole thing seems so craven, just like freemium games that south park also skewered, based on taking advantage of some addicts/clout chasers who crave the rush of some digital bits attached to their avatars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2luhwy3KAE0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2luhwy3KAE0

mattress 5y ago

LOL I’m pretty sure the screenshot of “their” avatar creation is actually from Forza Horizon character customization screen

discardedrefuse 5y ago
It is! The author of the article is aware.

seanhunter 5y ago

"...this would seem a strange time for the 76ers to end their contract with Color Star, the Cayman Islands-registered, Dubai-based ready-mix concrete outfit pivoting to Web3 technology and hyping the forthcoming launch of a celeb-populated metaverse" Such a fantastic quote

pjmorris 5y ago
Perfect. It sounds like something Matt Levine would either mock or write.
- tata71 5y ago
  But what about Matt Finestone?
moneywoes 5y ago
no redflags at all
- myvoiceismypass 5y ago
  None. Not even the Color Star CEO being a mysterious person named “Sir Lucas Capetian”...

vernie 5y ago

It's always nice when an older generation of shyster tries to get into the latest tech fad.

dylan604 5y ago
Let's go boomers! What's sad is when the younger gen can't get into the older scams.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

This company feels like a combination of every shady business person and wantrepreneur I’ve ever crossed paths with. Bombastic CEO who thinks he can skip the “make it” part of “fake it till you make it” and then strongarm his way past any obstacles with legal threats. The way the CEO misspells NY (New York) as “MY” in his own e-mail signature is a fitting touch.

mtalantikite 5y ago
Also what is with that address, A108 Adam Street with a Manhattan zip code that doesn’t exist? Google seems to place it at City Hall Park in lower Manhattan, which definitely isn’t a place that receives mail. There’s also a long list of scammy looking companies using that address. Edit: also looks like Google maps places it at the park down by Dumbo. Very weird.
- nkurz 5y ago
  Yes, searching for that does produce a bunch of odd results, many of which use "info@example.com" as their email address and literal "Lorem ipsum" as description : https://www.google.com/search?q=%22A108+Adam+Street%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22A108+Adam+Street%22 Some of the results also include the odd term "Bootstrap Template". Perhaps there is some web building tool that uses this address as the filler text on a template page?
  - notyourday 5y ago
    It is a total scam - there's no such address in 10006. Anyone who is a CEO is not going to have an address of the office written incorrectly. The scammer(s) have not spent any time in NY hence they do not know that New York, NY is Manhattan but Brooklyn, NY is Brooklyn even though both are in New York City, NY What is mind boggling in that some idiots at 76ers and NBA got swindled by clearly a non-existent entity.
    - usrusr 5y ago
      Putting the virtual in virtual reality, can't fault them for inconsistency if nothing is real on any level.

stdgy 5y ago

This might be my favorite story of the year. So many weird twists and turns. It has to be some kind of money laundering operation, right?

moate 5y ago
Feels to me like "con-man capitalist took the con too far and people started pay attention to how much of a con this sounds like".
TigeriusKirk 5y ago
This is one of the very few times I agree with an online assertion that money laundering is a plausible explanation.

mdoms 5y ago

Can someone translate the first sentence of the article for me? I have literally no idea what any of this means. > Eagle-eyed viewers of Friday night’s Celtics-76ers tilt in Philadelphia will have noticed a sudden absence of the ubiquitous Color Star banners recently seen splashed on every available flat surface inside the home team’s arena

ryandamm 5y ago
In case you're not being facetious: It just means that Color Star's advertisements are no longer visible in the 76ers' arena (because the partnership was terminated).
Infinitesimus 5y ago
Celtics vs 76ers game last Friday. NBA games tend to have a lot of banner ads and anyone paying attention could have noticed that there were no Color Star banners to be seen during the game.
chrisoverzero 5y ago
> Last night, the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers played a basketball game in an arena in Philadelphia. If you were looking carefully (I write sarcastically), you may have noticed that the interior of the arena looks different from how it has recently – the advertisements for Color Star, which had been everywhere (I write hyperbolically), were now missing.
- mdoms 5y ago
  Thank you. The article assumes I know a lot of background: what Celtics-76ers is (apparently two basketball teams), what a "Celtics-76ers tilt" is (a match between them?), what Color Star is, that their banners (advertisements?) are ubiquitous...
  - chrisoverzero 5y ago
    Defector is a sports website, so I think they can safely assume some background knowledge.

pessimizer 5y ago

Descriptions of the alleged product in the article confirm that the metaverse is a cheap knockoff of Habbo Hotel.

reaperducer 5y ago
Reminds me of Rabbitjack's Casino on QuantumLink in 1986.

moneywoes 5y ago

How can a person like this fool a billion + organization?

notyourday 5y ago
Because people who run the a billion+ organizations are imbeciles that who don't know how to wipe their own ass without a team of twenty people providing support. So it is just the question of being introduced to the people who tell those that run the organizations what to do. It is not that difficult is those that that tell those who runs the organizations are properly incentivised.

faangiq 5y ago

Amazing article.

gzer0 5y ago

Is there any reason why the press release thumbnail is a picture of a Fortnite lobby? This has gotten to the point where it transcends even the most bat-shit insane people; this has to be an elaborate troll or they are delusional.

trembonator 5y ago

penjelly 5y ago

metaverse is a word im already sick of

toomanyrichies 5y ago

The following is pretty far down on the list of facets of this story which are straight-up bonkers, but... I would think that any threat of legal action on Color Star's part is an empty one, since that would mean "Lucas Capetian" would have to appear (either in-person or via video) for the purposes of a legal deposition. That seems unlikely, given "his" reticence to appear in public or reveal anything at all about his true identity. Those with legal expertise, feel free to weigh in here.

pkilgore 5y ago
His company would have to appear, sure. But not him. And by "appear" I mean, hire a lawyer and designate a 30(b)(6) witness. I'd definitely subpoena him. But it can take a lot of money to get to that point...