A group of attorneys, accountants, pro athletes and NFL fans are attempting to buy the Denver Broncos by raising USD$4 billion (AUD$5.5 billion) using a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO).

In early February, The Pat Bowlen Trust, operator of the Denver Broncos, announced the team was officially up for sale, with its price tag expected to be the highest in North American sporting history.

Now, a group of cryptocurrency enthusiasts are planning to raise billions through their DAO to become the successful bidders.

A DAO is a community-led entity with no central authority and fully autonomous and transparent operations.

DAOs can be used to raise money through dividend offerings and are governed entirely by its members who can work collectively to make decisions about their project’s ongoings.

Unlike a normal investor pool, DAOs rely on cryptocurrency technology to facilitate the inner workings of raising capital and validating each member’s participation in the group without the overarching authority of a single leader.

The DAO attempting to buy the team is called ‘BuyTheBroncos’ and will go live in the coming days with group member and former Cisco employee, Sean O’Brien, stating the DAO was established to allow Denver fans to own a part of the Denver Broncos.

“We know it sounds a bit crazy, but it’s also a bit badass,” O’Brien said.

Trustees of the Broncos said they aim to sell the team by the start of the 2022 NFL season on 8 September, which leaves six months for the DAO to raise the capital required to purchase the team.

However, Colorado Governor, Jared Polis’s, recent announcement of plans to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of tax payment, may increase people’s trust in cryptocurrency and incentivise their use of crypto for investments.

BuyTheBroncos creators said they are hoping this announcement will work in their favour to raise the required capital.

Unlike the fan-owned Green Bay Packers who charged $300 per share to own a part of the team, fans wanting to have an investment in the Broncos will be able to invest any amount they’d like into the DAO to obtain partial ownership of the Broncos.

Members will purchase ownership using Ether (ETH) through the ‘BuyTheBroncos’ DAO and in exchange they will receive a non-fungible token (NFT) which doubles as the owner’s membership card to give them access to the decision-making cooperative.

BuyTheBroncos is not the first nor the last example of cryptocurrency being used to raise venture capital and purchase sports teams, with another example being a DAO called the ‘Krause House’ also attempting to raise around USD$2.2 billion (AUD$3 billion) to purchase an NBA team.