Ice Cube’s Big3 basketball league is going public to let fans invest in the business. But it has previously been accused of backing away from a promise that NFT buyers would own stakes in teams and share in the upside of franchise sales.
The proposed class action, filed last summer in California state court by Lou and Sally Sheward, has not been previously reported. It asserts 12 causes of action, including fraudulent concealment and breach of contract, and claims the league misrepresented the rights that buyers of Big3 team-specific NFTs would receive.
The allegations take on new significance because Big3 last month announced a special purpose acquisition company merger that values the league at $290 million. Once that deal closes, Big3 will be publicly traded, meaning it is once again inviting fans and investors to buy into the league.
A Big3 representative tells Front Office Sports the lawsuit is nothing but sour grapes, saying in a statement that “Sheward and the other plaintiffs represent holders of an asset class—namely NFTs—which lost all value due to the overall market collapse.”
“The plaintiffs are filing a public nuisance suit despite contractual obligations to resolve all such disputes through confidential arbitration,” the statement says. “This is a classic nuisance suit for an asset class that has lost all value, brought in an effort to extort the BIG3.”
