FC Barcelona and AS Roma fan tokens rally after Socios partners with UEFA

February 28, 2022 Coin Telegraph

ASR, BAR and ACM posted double-digit rallies after the Socios fan token platform partnered with UEFA to bring NFTs and other redeemable perks to European football fans.

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) continue to see increased utilization as the possible applications of the technology have begun to be recognized in sectors ranging from sports entertainment to real estate.

One subsector of this market that has seen a spike in momentum on Feb. 28 are fan token projects, protocols that allow their holders to participate in the governance of their favorite sports brands and receive specialized NFTs and other unique redeemables.

*Top 7 coins with the highest 24-hour price change. Source:* *Cointelegraph Markets Pro*

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the three biggest gainers over the past 24-hours were FC Barcelona Fan Token (BAR), AS Roma Fan Token (ASR) and Atletico De Madrid Fan Token (ATM), which are all fan tokens that are part of the Chilliz (CHZ) protocol.

Three reasons for the spike in the price of these fan tokens include a partnership between Socios and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the increased attention on football as World Cup qualifying matches are ongoing and the popularity of NFTs being combined with the most-watched sport on the planet.

Partnership with UEFA

A recently announced partnership between UEFA, the governing body for European football, and Socios, a protocol that focuses on the creation of fan tokens, could be one driver of the current rally.

The partnership is currently contracted through 2024 and establishes Socios as the regional sponsor for the Champions League, which is the most well-known competition held by the UEFA.

A New Era

We are thrilled to announce that UEFA Club Competition Fan Tokens are coming to the Socios App.

Fan Tokens will be exclusively available for free to Fan Tokens holders of clubs participating in the @ChampionsLeague, @EuropaLeague & @europacnfleague.#BeMoreThanAFan pic.twitter.com/dKiwHGoznR
— Socios.com (@socios) February 15, 2022

Through this collaboration, Fan Tokens will be made available for free to Fan Token holders of clubs participating in the Champions League as well as the Europa League and the Europa Conference League.

Club fans who hold Fan Tokens have the opportunity to win VIP experiences or free NFTs that drop during live gameplay as long as they are holding their tokens on the Socios app.

Ongoing competitions

A second reason for the strength seen in multiple Fan Tokens is the ramping up of football season and the building excitement for the World Cup which is scheduled to start on November 21, 2022.

The football season typically runs from August through May, meaning that the season is three-quarters of the way complete with teams and their fans now looking towards any possible championship matches.

Excitement for football is also on the rise as qualifier matches for the World Cup are currently ongoing ahead of World Cup 2022 which is scheduled to take place in Qatar from Nov. 21 to Dec. 17.

Football is the most popular sport on the planet which makes it ideal for the application of Fan Token technology to better engage with fans and offer a new era of sports memorabilia.

The rising popularity of NFTs

A third factor helping boost Fan Tokens has been the overall popularity of NFTs, which continue to gain traction on a mainstream level as new use cases arise.

Sports collectibles have long been a hallmark of various sectors of the market ranging from cards to in-game equipment signed by the players who used them.

As digital technology continues to integrate into all facets of daily life, it is now making its mark on the collectible world through the creation of one-of-a-kind digital items that are stored on the blockchain.

New @gnkdinamo NFT

Be the only fan in the world to own the physical & digital version of the shirt Mislav Orsić wore against West Ham.

Stay tuned for more details $DZG ⚡️ $CHZ pic.twitter.com/ThlPEaj5yr
— Socios.com (@socios) February 11, 2022

With Fan Tokens, holders can now receive NFTs created in real-time during live matches and in extremely limited quantity, providing a never-before-seen level of rarity in sports memorabilia recorded on a blockchain.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Penalties and extra time: The scoreboard for soccer club crypto deals

February 25, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Argentina

Despite Turkish government regulations having hamstrung Bitci’s soccer sponsorship deals, footballing crypto companies already have home-field advantage.

The world’s most popular sport suffered an own-goal as European clubs canceled their partnerships with Bitci, a Turkish crypto exchange. However, plenty of substitute crypto companies are on the bench, ready to bring crypto to the mainstream through soccer.

Growing yet unclear cryptocurrency regulations in Turkey have reportedly hampered the company’s ability to make payments, leading to a lack of confidence among major soccer clubs.

Portugal’s Sporting CP — the green-and-white-striped footballers famed for being the club where Cristiano Ronaldo cut his teeth — and Italian Serie A club Spezia have also canceled their partnership with Bitci. The F1 powerhouse Mclaren Racing terminated its sponsorship deal with Bitci earlier in February.

Barcelona also recently announced that it would favor a partnership deal with Binance over Spotify despite the launch of its fan token in April 2021.

While it would appear that crypto and soccer partnerships are down to 10 players, deals, enthusiasm and sponsorships for crypto among football clubs are an open goal.

Of England’s 20 football clubs, 17 have at least one deal with a cryptocurrency firm. For Watford soccer club, not only does Dogecoin (DOGE) appear on the shirtsleeve, but Stake.com sponsors the main body of the shirt.

*Dogecoin and Stake.com on Watford FC football shirt. Source: DW*

Eighty miles Southeast of Watford, in Southampton, “the Saints,” as they are known locally, launched a Bitcoin (BTC) hunt on Wednesday. In partnerships with crypto betting site Sportsbet.io, the online quiz winner takes home a whole BTC.

Still in England, Bitcoin podcaster Peter McCormack sparked the beginnings of an English underdog story as he bought his local club Bedford FC. He’s keen to take on the Premier League with the help of Bitcoin and its community.

While Crypto.com recently renamed the American football stadium in Los Angeles from the Staples Center to the Crypto.com arena, in Italy, the entire football league is sponsored by the cryptocurrency giant.

Elsewhere, fan tokens are also growing in popularity among European football fans. As Cointelegraph reported, blockchain sports firm Chiliz has caught the eye of major football clubs, while the Socios platform announced a deal with UEFA.

*The Inter Milan fan token appearing on the shirt. Source: Inter.it*

While a crypto sponsor for a European national team may have to wait until next season, the Argentine team was the first national soccer club worldwide to take on a crypto sponsor. Binance recently partnered with the white and sky blues.

Finally, as European soccer waits for a national team to be sponsored by crypto, in rugby football, the Bitpanda crypto exchange now sponsors the Azurri. The exchange made the announcement ahead of Italy’s clash with the Six Nations rugby teams in January.

Ciao ragazzi!

We are proud to announce that we will be the main sponsor of @Federugby, the Italian Rugby Federation.

So, @SixNationsRugby fans, get ready to spot our logo whenever gli Azzurri are playing!

Find out more: https://t.co/JVBrA641hF pic.twitter.com/LGgKphmL0s
— Bitpanda (@bitpanda) January 20, 2022

Chiliz (CHZ) gains 170% after launching live in-game NFTs for fan token holders

November 14, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Altcoin Watch

The launch of live in-game NFTs and a rapidly expanding ecosystem boosted the price of CHZ and showcased the project’s strong fundamentals.

This year has seen a number of high profile partnerships formed between the cryptocurrency sector and major sports leagues, teams and individual players. Nowadays players engage with their fans by issuing limited edition NFTs and other perks that are associated with crypto and blockchain technology.

Crypto companies are also making their presence known stitching their names on jerseys, buying stadium naming rights and paying for cleverly placed primetime commercials between game breaks.

One project that has seen a recent surge in interest thanks to its focus in the world of sports and helping fans interact with their favorite teams and players is Chiliz (CHZ), the blockchain network behind the Socios.com fan engagement platform.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since hitting a low of $0.243 on Sept. 29 the price of CHZ spiked 171% to a daily high at $0.657 on Oct. 31 and recent developments are now pushing the price back towards the swing high.

*CHZ/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView*

Three reasons for the growing strength of CHZ include the launch of live in-game NFTs, recent exchange listings for CHZ as well as its newly released fan tokens and the protocol's rapidly expanding ecosystem of partners.

Live in-game NFT drops

The development that kicked off the current rally was the rollout of the platform's first live, in-game NFT drop which took place a match between A.C. Milan and A.S. Roma.

This Sunday, history will be made as we release the first ever @acmilan NFT.

Here's how you can be one of ONLY 100 to own one #ACMNFT | $ACM ⚡️ $CHZ pic.twitter.com/0z1aGyFgAC
— Socios.com (@socios) October 29, 2021

With this design, new NFTs are minted as they happen based on key moments in live matches and then they are dropped to the wallet of fan token holders who correctly predict the outcome of the game.

The announcement that this new method of distributing NFTs was followed by a spike in demand for the token which has continued to build in the following weeks.

CHZ and fan token support

Another reason for the building momentum of CHZ has been the addition of new exchange listings, as well as its newly released fan tokens for clubs like São Paulo FC, AC Milan and Manchester City.

Introducing Manchester City @ManCity Fan Token $CITY on Binance Launchpool! Farm $CITY by Staking #BNB, $CHZ and $BUSD Tokens

➡️ https://t.co/LvGgKeympQ pic.twitter.com/4V5OP63GFS
— Binance (@binance) November 10, 2021

In addition to the listings, Binance is also allowing fans to earn tokens from their favorite teams by staking Binance Coin (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD) and CH.

OKEx also announced that it will support tokens from the Chiliz ecosystem and CHZ appears to have benefited from a new listing eToro's crypto exchange on Nov. 9.

Expanding ecosystem backs the current rally

Ecosystem expansion could be another recent development that is strengthening CHZ's fundamentals.

More than 80 sports properties announced partnerships with @chiliz x @socios, more than +100 already signed. While improving our product and starting to prepare a global marketing campaign, we focus on building a leading new fan ecosystem (engagement x monetization). #innovation pic.twitter.com/mZKOL6IyDH
— Alexandre Dreyfus (@alex_dreyfus) November 6, 2021

Recently, the platform unveiled a partnership with Kraft Sports and Entertainment which will see the National Football League’s (NFL) New England Patriots and Major League Soccer’s (MLS) New England Revolution join the Chiliz and Socios ecosystem.

This partnership marks the first foray for Chiliz into the NFL and MLS and indicates that the protocol has its sights set on expanding to cover all major sports leagues where there is a demand from fans for more engagement.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for CHZ on Oct. 28, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

*VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. CHZ price. Source:* *Cointelegraph Markets Pro*

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for CHZ began to pick up on Oct. 27 and reached a high of 70 on Oct. 28, just as its price began to increase 125% over the next two weeks.