We caught up with Vartul Agrawal, Head of Engineering at Arena Club who is harnessing technological innovation for the collectible card industry.
Projected to reach a valuation of $98 billion by the end of the decade (according to The Gist), the collectible card industry is one backed by 1-2 million baseball cards produced a year, multi-million-dollar sales of cards for sports icons (i.e. Caitlin Clark, Lebron James, Patrick Mahomes, and others), and, unfortunately, shrouded by enormous in-person thefts as well as fraudulent grading schemes.
Can you tell us about when you became involved with Arena Club and the concept of the company which excited you the most?
I got involved with Arena Club about a year ago, in August 2023. The concept of the company that excited me the most was taking a traditionally physical hobby to a digital platform. This also brought transparency and accuracy to the hobby. We are a technology first, customer focused organization.
How is Arena Club taking advantage of the growth occurring in the collectibles industry?
Arena Club is taking advantage of the growth occurring in the collectibles industry by creating new innovative products to bring new users to the hobby. We are building products that are accessible to all through the click of a button.
How has Arena Club modernized and sped up the process of authenticating collections? How has AI played a role in this?
Arena Club was built from the beginning with the idea of transparency and consistency in grading and authentication. To achieve this we use different machine learning models powering our Artificial Intelligence system used to grade and authenticate these cards. We look at similar cards, any cards that have already been through our system, including publicly available data on cards, to verify the authenticity of the card. We also have bounds in place to measure the size of the cards to ensure they are not physically trimmed or altered in any way.
Relating to safety, how does Arena Club protect the growing collections which consumers are building?
Arena Club is using blockchain technology to keep a digital ledger of the ownership of the collections. The slabs have labels with unique identifiers and hidden security features that protect them from being counterfeit. The physical collections, meanwhile, are housed in a high security, climate controlled vault that is also insured for the full value of the assets. The label also has a QR code that will give you all information about the card
Have you seen collecting become more accessible through your work at Arena Club? Outside of sports cards, have you noticed any other specific collectibles grow in popularity in the marketplace?
Absolutely, I believe collecting has become more accessible through the work we are doing at Arena Club. Our approach to digital first opens the hobby to everyone, especially someone who doesn't have a card shop near them to take part in the hobby. Collectors can also ship their cards to their homes with a simple click making even the physical cards accessible to all. Outside of sports, TCG (Trading Card Game collectibles) have been huge in the marketplace. Particularly, Pokemon has been attracting the younger members of the hobby. Also, categories/games like Magic: The Gathering have been growing in popularity on the Arena Club marketplace at a tremendous pace.
Based on your past experience, is there any advice you would like to share with those hoping to become engineers and tech executives?
The biggest advice I would give is to embrace change and respect and learn from your peers. Technology keeps changing and you have to, too, to continue growing. Being a tech executive means leading technically but, even more than that, also leading personally with empathy to ensure the success of your team overall.
