Karate Combat – a prominent full-contact martial arts league – reportedly revealed its decision to establish a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to transition its governance to fans and athletes.

Specifically, Karate Combat’s DAO is reportedly set to be introduced within the scope of a three-year sponsorship agreement with Hedera’s HBAR Foundation, with expected official live time being the last month of this year. 

Holders of Karate Combat’s in-house governance token, KARATE, will get to vote on different initiatives, which include deciding the league’s budget, resource allocation, supplier selection, marketing strategy and rule changes.

Furthermore, the DAO will make it possible for supporters to vote on numerous athlete-associated decisions, nominally fighter contracts and fight match-up selections, based on predetermined boundaries of influence. 

Karate Combat has plans down its pipeline to conduct distribution for half of its in-house tokens to the community free-of-charge, to be used for participation in the DAO and a gaming application.

Participation in Karate Combat’s DAO is expected for an international expansion with the league broadcasts throughout over 100 nations via mainstream and online channels, including CBS Sports, Eurosport, YouTube and TikTok. 

“The sporting world must evolve to increase engagement with a new generation of fans who have grown up on social media and digital gaming. They expect to be active participants in the action, rather than passive viewers”. Adam Kovacs, the president of Karate Combat, highlighted the need for improving fan engagement, additionally remarked. 

Per Karate Combat, the league hosts an online community of more than 3.5 million supporters who could potentially assist steering future decisions. 

Shayne Higdon, the co-founder and CEO of HBAR Foundation, envisions the upcoming DAO to attract more users to the Hedera Network, which, in turn, will help bestow “tangible, real-world impact for end-users.”