NBA Top Shot sells officially licensed NBA and WNBA video highlights, called Moments, as NFTs in randomized packs, which collectors then trade on a built-in marketplace. This guide explains how Top Shot works, what its boom and its securities lawsuit showed, and what a licensed sports collectibles marketplace needs to launch.
How NBA Top Shot works
Dapper Labs built NBA Top Shot on Flow, a blockchain that Dapper also created. Dapper's website reports more than 1.6 million collectors and more than $1.2 billion in sales on Top Shot, figures that come from the company and have no independent audit.
- Moments. A Moment is a short licensed video highlight that belongs to a set and has a numbered edition. Each rarity tier, such as Common, Rare or Legendary, has its own edition size. Collectors pay more for low serial numbers and for a serial that matches the player's jersey number.
- Packs. Top Shot sells new Moments in randomized packs during scheduled drops. In 2021, demand was high enough that drops used virtual queues with hundreds of thousands of people.
- Marketplace. Collectors list and buy Moments from each other, and Dapper takes a fee on each sale.
- Challenges and sets. A collector who completes a set or a required lineup earns a reward, so challenges give collectors a reason to buy specific Moments.
- Accounts and payments. Users sign up with an email address and pay by card. A managed Dapper account holds the Moments and a dollar balance, so users never handle a seed phrase.
Why Dapper built Flow
Dapper's earlier game, CryptoKitties, caused heavy traffic on Ethereum in late 2017. Dapper then built Flow for consumer applications, and Flow's mainnet launched in 2020. Flow's smart contract language, Cadence, stores NFTs as "resources," which exist in only one place at a time and which code cannot copy or lose by accident. Today the Flow Foundation and an independent ecosystem run Flow, and it also runs Solidity contracts through Flow EVM.
Permanent storage of Moments
In June 2026 the Flow team announced that Top Shot Moments are preserved on IPFS. Owners can now check their collection's media and data with a reference app and an internet connection, without Dapper's servers.
The 2021 boom and the securities lawsuit
NBA Top Shot opened to the public in late 2020 and in 2021 became one of the largest NFT products by sales, before prices fell sharply as the NFT market cooled. During the peak, collectors also complained that withdrawals of dollar balances took a long time.
A class action, Friel v. Dapper Labs, argued that Moments were unregistered securities, partly because Dapper controlled both the marketplace and the blockchain. In 2023 a federal court in New York let the claim proceed, and Dapper settled the case in 2024 without admitting wrongdoing. The case shows that a closed ecosystem under one company's control can support a securities claim.
What an NBA Top Shot clone should copy
An NBA Top Shot clone without a license can copy the software but not the licensed highlights. It should copy these features:
- Licensed content. Official rights from the league, team or players create the value, and without them the platform sells clips it does not own.
- Onboarding for sports fans. Users sign up with an email address and pay by card, with no seed phrases.
- Sets and challenges. Collecting goals create demand for specific items in every rarity tier.
- Serial numbers. Numbered editions make each copy of the same clip a distinct item.
What to do differently
- Allow self-custody and outside trading from launch. Let users move items to their own wallets, and set royalties at the contract or chain level.
- Do not market returns. Present the items as fan collectibles, not as investments.
- Keep edition sizes small. Top Shot's later series had larger supplies, and prices fell.
- Plan payout operations. Withdrawals need staff and payment capacity that can handle a demand spike.
Components of a licensed sports collectibles marketplace
| Component | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Rights and licensing | Rights from the league, teams, players' association and broadcaster for video, names and likenesses |
| Collectible contracts | NFTs that record the set, tier, edition and serial number |
| Pack system | Pack contents drawn with verifiable randomness, scheduled drops, a queue for traffic peaks |
| Wallets and payments | Embedded wallets, card payments, KYC before payouts |
| Marketplace | Listings and offers filtered by player, team, set and serial |
| Challenges engine | Challenge rules, eligibility checks, reward delivery |
| Video pipeline | Clip production, transcoding, delivery, permanent storage |
Dapper has applied the same model to other licenses, such as NFL ALL DAY and LaLiga Golazos. Related guides on this site cover NFTs on the Flow blockchain, sports NFT marketplaces in general, and the fantasy-game model in the Sorare guide.
Build sequence and effort
- Secure the rights. Sign a license with the league, the players' association or another rights holder, which sets the revenue share and the approval process for content.
- Design sets and tiers. Set the edition size for each tier, the release schedule and the challenge rewards, and model the total supply over several seasons.
- Build the contracts. The edition contract records serial numbers, and the pack contract assigns contents with verifiable randomness.
- Add wallets and payments. Integrate embedded wallets and card payments, with KYC before payouts.
- Build the marketplace and the challenges engine, then load-test the drop queue.
- Get a legal review. Some jurisdictions treat paid randomized packs like loot boxes, and lawyers should also review how the marketing describes the collectibles.
The following is a reasoned estimate, not a quote. The technical build takes about five to eight months for four to six engineers plus a designer, assuming the rights holder supplies the licensed video. License negotiations often take longer than the build.
Frequently asked questions
What is NBA Top Shot?
NBA Top Shot is a Dapper Labs marketplace for officially licensed NBA and WNBA video highlights sold as NFTs. Collectors buy Moments in packs and trade them with each other, and the Moments live on the Flow blockchain.
Can I build an NBA Top Shot clone without a league license?
Not with highlights of professional players. A platform can work with amateur or lower-tier leagues that give consent, or with original content. Unlicensed clips of professional athletes lead to takedowns and lawsuits.
Does a sports collectibles marketplace need Flow?
No. Flow has Dapper's tools for consumer collectibles, but EVM chains with embedded wallets and account abstraction can offer the same email sign-up and card payments.
How can a platform prove that pack contents are fair?
Assign pack contents with verifiable randomness and publish the odds for each tier, so collectors can check that the packs matched the published odds.