By Andy Marston, Sports Pundit
Luka Doncic has launched 77X, a first-of-its-kind athlete-built direct-to-fan platform that brings content, commerce, collectibles, and live experiences into a single owned ecosystem.
Unlike traditional athlete brand plays, 77X consolidates everything Doncic creates, including media, merchandise, IP, events, and community, into one proprietary platform rather than fragmenting across licensees and social platforms.
“This launch marks the first time an athlete has brought everything they create, from content and products to events and community, into a single direct-to-fan business,” explained Lara Beth Seager, Chief Business and Brand Officer for Luka Doncic and CEO of 77X.
The launch has been timed at the peak of Dončić’s cultural and commercial relevance, with leading All-Star fan voting, strong jersey sales, and momentum across social and retail.
Fan Pass, a free membership layer built in-house, acts as both the gateway and the data spine, giving Doncic direct ownership of the fan relationship rather than relying on third-party platforms.
An immersive physical activation planned for NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles signals that 77X has been designed as a hybrid model linking online fandom with real-world experiences.
The platform is underpinned by a strategic commerce partnership with Shopify, enabling global scale while keeping creative control, IP ownership, and fan data in-house.
Why It Matters:
There is little value in revisiting the case for owning the fan relationship rather than renting it. The interesting question here is why this attempt carries a meaningfully higher chance of working than previous efforts from athletes to go direct-to-fan.
First, 77X avoids anchoring itself to an open-ended promise of behind-the-scenes content, which places a constant personal burden on the athlete. Products and media will arrive, but they sit inside a broader system designed around identity, participation, and worldbuilding. It’s following a model closer to that used by musicians that current athletes.
Second, Doncic operates at a rare intersection of global relevance, cultural fluency, and commercial leverage, supported by a team built for long-term execution. That matters as this model requires scale, patience, and credibility, and many earlier direct-to-fan efforts have struggled without those foundations.
Third, advances in generative technology act as a meaningful enabler. Characters, environments, and narrative continuity can now be developed and maintained with far greater efficiency, allowing the ecosystem to evolve without demanding continuous physical presence from Doncic himself.
Finally, 77X has been built as a hybrid model rather than a purely digital one. Fan Pass prioritises real-world signals such as event attendance, physical drops, and shared experiences alongside digital engagement, creating a richer picture of fandom than online behaviour alone, where metrics have become increasingly distorted.
For athletes, leagues, and rightsholders, the opportunity sits in how identity, data, and participation can be designed to work across physical and digital touchpoints.
This remains far easier to articulate than to execute so credit belongs to Luka’s team for the ambition and for the depth of groundwork already in place with this launch (this was reported to be at least four years in the works).
Looking ahead, three conditions will need to hold. First, the team must sustain creative worldbuilding that feels additive rather than episodic, allowing the platform to compound over time. Second, live experiences and physical drops must continue anchoring the digital layer in real participation, giving Fan Pass meaning beyond access alone. And third, the infrastructure must remain flexible enough to expand beyond Luka himself, whether through collaborators, new formats, or future talent.
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