THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Erik Schneberger, Chief Marketing Officer of American Century Investments, here to tell us a little bit about what ACI is doing this week as far as the tournament is concerned. Launching the first-ever American Century Championship NFT charity auction.
ERIK SCHNEBERGER: First, as a reminder, last year, we're always looking for new and innovative ways to get our fans involved and have them engaged with celebrities, whether they're here or at home.
Last year was the first year we launched our fantasy golf challenge. And so those who haven't done it, you can go to ACCfantasygolf.com. And there you can sign up and select five of your favorite celebrities and play along with them during the tournament.
The winners of those, there will be a winner every day over the course of the tournament, as well as an overall winner. So four winners will get a trip to next year's American Century Championship, as well as the overall winner. So that's the person that gets the highest score across all the days will also, in addition to that trip, get $10,000 to be directed to their charity of choice.
So as you all know, the tournament has been -- one of the main focuses of the American Century Championship has been charitable giving. And one of the things that I think makes American Century Investments so special and unique is our ownership structure. We give 40 percent of our profits to Stowers Institute for Medical Research, which their mission is to find and research and better understand the mechanics behind life-threatening diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer.
So that 40 percent, $1.8 billion to date, has been contributed to that research. So you mentioned the NFT. So this is the first time and we're really excited about this. The nonfungible token that we're creating is a digital golf ball signed by the celebrities.
We've had people out on the course asking the celebrities to engage in this charity event. What's also great is that celebrities here are really gracious and engaged especially for charitable giving, which is what this tournament is all about.
So we've already had a number of celebrities sign the golf ball. In fact, some major names. So all the Currys, Steph, Dell and Seth, have joined it. Nick Jonas signed it today. Justin Timberlake signed it. It's a really special unique opportunity for those who want to get involved and do some charitable giving and get something in return.
So we'll have an auction for the NFT. It's at myACCnft.com. MyACCnft.com. And those that are interested can go there and find more about it.
Q. We have some materials that you can pick up that has all the URLs and whatnot and more information right there. So awesome work. Tell us, NFT -- this group, hey, we're all used to NFL. Tell us a little bit more about NFT.
ERIK SCHNEBERGER: NFT stands for nonfungible token. It's basically a digital collectible. The way this auction is going to work, when you go to that website, myACCnft.com, you'll see a couple of different things. One, you'll see what we call fixed-priced golf balls, digital golf balls, that you can just buy. And there are a hundred of those.
And there's one auction, which is a very unique auction. And that auction basically is the digital ball with a unique background, along with that ball and that NFT, the auction winner will get a physical 3-D rendering of the signed ball by the celebrities.
With this one, we're giving away a trip to beautiful Edgewood Resort, which includes the flights, stay at the Edgewood Lodge as well as credit to the resort.
What's super special about this NFT auction is 100 percent of net proceeds are going to the Stowers Institute for Medical Research to fund that research for cancer and Alzheimer's, as I said before.
Q. How do fans bid on it? If we want to get involved, website, is that what we're doing?
ERIK SCHNEBERGER: So all the instructions are on myACCnft.com. The auction begins on Friday, July 8th at 4:00 p.m. So if you went there now you would have a signup sheet that basically asks for your e-mail. You would get an e-mail when the auction goes live. So you can either go now and put in your information or you can go back after 4:00 p.m. on Friday and it will be available and you can see what's there for you, and you can actually see the digital asset, or digital collectible that we've put out there.
Q. New project, obviously. I'm sure you're excited about it. How much money do you expect to raise or hope to raise this year with this project?
ERIK SCHNEBERGER: It's hard to say. Honestly, any dollar going to the Stowers Institute for Medical Research is one more dollar toward finding the sources of those life-threatening diseases. Anything we can raise would be fantastic.
This is new for us, like we said, this is the first-ever we've done. I'm not sure but I'm excited to find out.
Q. I'm curious mostly if you get a sense amongst your coworkers in Kansas City of a sense of pride of what the Stowers stood for and what they've done and how that's carried on through things like this.
ERIK SCHNEBERGER: Yes. First of all, our employees are incredibly proud of our ownership structure and the fact that we contribute 40 percent to medical research. I think what's really special, not just about that relationship, but the way we do business and the employees that we are able to attract because of that giving, it gives us a higher sense of contribution to society.
So we essentially have two missions. One is our investments and growing and securing individuals', institutions' and financial advisors' financial future. And the other is, at the same time, contributing to life-saving research. It's one very special thing about going to work every day.
Q. If Jim were here today, he's been gone for, I think, eight years now -- what do you think he would say about what ACI has continued to do?
ERIK SCHNEBERGER: First of all, the firm has had tremendous success and growth, but I think what he'd be most proud of is our ability to help our clients and secure their financial futures and really work with them to do the best that we can on their behalf.
And I think he would just be marveled by the fact that to date $1.8 billion have been contributed to basically his vision. We continue to do that. We always continue to find new ways like this NFT to help support that over time.
Q. Big week, obviously. Next year will be American Century's 25th anniversary being a title sponsor of this event. You've got the NFT effort going on. You've got the fantasy golf for the second year. You're in a room with media people who, every year, convince me to kick in some money to have a pool and the winner takes all. If they pick the winner in the final score -- they know a little bit about fantasy. Tell us a little bit more about the fantasy golf contest. Any hot tips that you might have on the media's ability to win that?
ERIK SCHNEBERGER: So, I don't have any hot tips, other than I was speaking with the team earlier, and I think John Smoltz has just got, given his placement last year and going all the way down to the wire in the playoffs, I think he's got something to prove this year. I'm looking at him as the big winner.
But the other thing I think is really special about this tournament -- and I'm sure you guys know this -- is that we also work with Wounded Warriors and Team 43, and Adam Napier joining the field this year is really exciting. I saw him play a few holes today, and he looks really good. So I think these celebrities also have to watch out because he can play.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports