Despite the Knicks’ three-game losing streak, Carmelo Anthony’s stock is rising.
Literally.
Thanks to a Massachusetts-based tech start-up, hoops fans can “invest” in a virtual Melo and rack up profits or losses based on other investor interest in the NBA star. In the past seven days, according to information from the company, called StarStreet, his value has soared 20 percent to $3.39 a share.
“It’s a digital version of sports cards with a market attached,” StarStreet co-founder Jeremy Levine said yesterday. “It’s a lot like trading with ETrade except you’re trading players you know and love rather than companies you probably don’t.”
Levine said the Web site trades in virtual assets, similar to the booming market that has grown around virtual goods in social-network games like Zynga’s “FarmVille” and “Mafia Wars.”
StarStreet sees dollar signs in sports stars, with shares available in select NBA and MLB players while those leagues are in season. The firm, for example, is planning an “IPO” (Initial Player Offering) of Yankee superstar Derek Jeter today.
There also is a March Madness market for basketball, but because the NCAA players are amateurs, it is based on the teams.
Here’s how it works: An IPO is launched with 100 shares. Investors, who are limited to 20 percent of any player and can only invest up to $200, enter a bid price for the player’s shares. The highest bids covering 100 shares are accepted and the IPO is set as a weighted average of the bids.
Subsequent stock prices are determined through buy and sell agreements between shareholders and bidders.
StarStreet takes a 4 percent cut from the sell side of every transaction — and all money is returned to investors when the invest-in-a-player’s season is over.
The start-up, whose concept has been vetted by lawyers, according to Levine, attracted money from some big names, including Silicon Valley titan Ron Conway and Jarrod Yuster, a Wall Street start-up investor. gsloane@nypost.com