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The way that sports fans make financial investments is about to be taken to a whole new level thanks to a new company called Mojo.
Mojo, a company founded by Alex Rodriguez, Timberwolves owner Marc Lore and businessmen Bart Stein and Vinit Bharara, boasts a “sports stock market” that gives fans the opportunity to use their knowledge and intuition like never before. Mojo allows fans to make monetary investments into an athlete’s on-field performance like a stock.
While sports stock markets themselves are not new, Mojo is the first to allow fans make real money bets on an athlete’s career prospects with real-time price changes and instant liquidity, allowing users of the app to enter or exit their position at any time.
Mojo currently allows users to purchase stock in NFL players as the proceed throughout their careers, and will launch their college quarterback IPO pricing on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. ET ahead of Saturday’s college football action.
Here’s how it works.
Users can purchase stock in any college quarterback for a specified price per share. For example, as of Friday afternoon, Alabama quarterback Bryce Young was trading for $31.45 per share. Mojo uses proprietary calculations, as well as buyer and seller demand, to set the price of an athlete for purchase.
The value of a player, in this case a college quarterback, can appreciate or depreciate depending on a number of factors. Ultimately, the price of a player is determined on what their long-term prospects are as a professional.
If Young, to continue with the example above, were to go on to have a Hall-of-Fame career in the NFL, his price would be much higher than $31.45 per share. However, if he went on to be an NFL bust, his value would plummet significantly, and maybe even to $0.
To date, the New Jersey Gaming Commission has granted Mojo a license to begin operating throughout the state. While users in any state can download and use some features of the app, deposits and trades can only be made in New Jersey at this time.
A Mojo spokesperson told Sports Illustrated that there are current plans in the works to expand to nine additional states in 2023 and beyond. Announcements detailing those states where users can actively place trades in the Mojo app will be made in the next six months.
You can find out more about Mojo here.
