Tottenham Hotspur taps Chiliz blockchain for Web3 fan token

September 28, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain

Spurs becomes the first Premier League team in two years to issue its own fan token on the Chiliz blockchain.

Tottenham Hotspur will become the latest Premier League team to tap into blockchain technology to issue and manage its own Web3 fan token to drive supporter engagement and rewards.

Spurs will issue the fan token through Socios.com, the fan engagement platform built on the Chiliz blockchain that has attracted over 80 major sporting teams from different codes around the world. The platform enables teams to issue and manage fan tokens, digital collectibles and real world rewards, while users can participate in DAO-like decisions involving their favourite teams.

Spurs join the likes of Premier League champions Manchester City, Arsenal Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan,Atlético Madrid and A.S. Roma, which are some of the most prominent teams in professional football making use of blockchain to innovate engagement with supporters.

The launch will allow $SPURS token holders to take part in onchain voting on a variety of team dynamics, including potential kit changes. Spurs will also partner with MatchWornShit, the platform that facilitates auctions of jerseys worn by players during games that are authenticated on the Chiliz blockchain.

Tottenham Hotspur's official announcement of its fan token. Source: Socios.

Commenting on the partnership, Tottenham commercial sales director Ryan Norys said that the fan token will build on its existing membership scheme with a “new range of club-related rewards and experiences.”

Speaking directly to Cointelegraph, Chiliz and Socios CEO Alexandre Dreyfus said that talks have been ongoing with Spurs since 2022. He also said that the club would use Socios while simultaneously integrating their fan token into their own loyalty programme and mobile app in the future.

$Spurs tokens are set to be launched on Oct. 4 and will be listed across cryptocurrency exchanges that support Chiliz tokens. Socios users in the United Kingdom can also expect to see disclaimers on fan token offerings from Oct. 8, as the marketing of cryptoasset promotions comes under the auspices of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

This will require stricter rules for advertising as well as a disclaimer warning investors of potential total losses investing in cryptocurrencies or fan tokens.

Manchester City, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Everton, Leeds and Crystal Palace are the other Premier League outfits that manage fan tokens on the platform, with Dreyfus noting that the ongoing cryptocurrency bear market has hindered onboarding of teams over the past year.

Fan tokens have become a significant source of revenue as teams look to leverage digital technologies to drive user engagement. Chiliz estimates that its blockchain platform has handled over $400 million in revenue for teams and leagues since 2018.

Chiliz was originally built as an ERC-20 token ecosystem but shifted onto its own layer-1 blockchain that is a fork of the BNB Chain in May 2023. Operating on a proof-of-stake authority (PoSA) consensus mechanism is touted to deliver shorter block times, reduced fees, and lower energy consumption, while being EVM-compatible allows it to remain compatible with Ethereum development tools.

The International Cricket Council is also looking to leverage blockchain technology to drive fan engagement during the upcoming 2023 Cricket World Cup in India. NEAR Foundation’s blockchain operating system will serve as the backbone for a Web3 fan engagement app during the six week global competition.

Collect this article as an NFT to preserve this moment in history and show your support for independent journalism in the crypto space.

Magazine: Blockchain detectives: Mt. Gox collapse saw birth of Chainalysis

Fan tokens struggle to hold on as World Cup quarter-finals draw nearer

December 7, 2022 Coin Telegraph

2022 FIFA World Cup

Soccer fan tokens have seen their prices and trading volumes plummet since the start of the World Cup on Nov. 20.

Cryptocurrencies tied to national soccer teams have failed to keep the attention of 2022 FIFA World Cup fans, with many soccer-linked fan token prices plummeting since the tournament began.

Between Portugal, Spain, Brazil and Argentina, the associated digital fan tokens have fallen between 60% to 88% percent in price since the start of the World Cup on Nov. 20, according to CoinGecko.

This is despite Brazil, Argentina and Portugal reaching the quarter-finals, while Spain was a strong contender up until they were knocked out on Dec. 6.

The tokens do generally react to immediate results, with Spain's SNFT token down 39.1% over the past 24 hours following the team's loss against Morocco, however, Portugal's POR token is also down 6.1% over that same time frame, despite them beating Switzerland 6-1 on Dec.6. Such suggests that the tokens are becoming less reactive to the associated teams’ success.

Notably, these cryptocurrencies saw their peaks well before any of the teams even walked on the soccer field in Qatar, suggesting a classic “buy the rumor, sell the news” event took place.

Both the Portugal and Argentina fan tokens hit their all-time highs (ATHs) on Nov. 18, while the ATHs for Spain and Brazil fan tokens came two months prior on Sept. 28.

A similar occurrence can also be seen on the chart for Chiliz (CHZ), the native token behind the major fan token platform Socios, which pumped to its own ATH on Nov. 20 but has since dropped 36%.

The 24-hour trading volumes of tokens have also dropped off drastically since kick-off — falling between 79% to 88% since Nov. 20.

This class of tokens was originally designed to offer fans unique interaction opportunities with teams they support, such as allowing tokenholders to vote on minor decisions like what is to be written on the captain’s armband.

Critics of fan tokens see it differently, however, and view the market as a predatory way for experienced traders to milk enthusiastic fans out of capital.

Speaking to The Athletic in Aug. 2021, Martin Calladine, author of The Ugly Game — a book exploring the dark side of FIFA’s dealings with Qatar and its bid for the 2022 World Cup — offered a grim take on the fan tokens.

“We see the price of tokens being driven up in anticipation of football events like signings or titles,” he said, adding that “traders cash them out, prices crash, and fans are left sitting on losses — victims of their enthusiasm for their clubs.”

Argentina’s fan token sinks 31% after World Cup loss against Saudi Arabia

November 23, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Algorand

The price of soccer fan tokens, designed for fan engagement, is seemingly impacted by the on-field performance of teams.

Argentina’s shock 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia in the opening match of the FIFA World Cup has plummeted the price of the Argentine Football Association Fan Token (ARG), in line with the hopes of the nation’s die-hard soccer fans.

With the ARG token priced at $7.21 at kick-off, the poor performance by the Lionel Messi-led soccer team saw the token’s price fall 31% to $4.96 by the end of the match before rising to $5.22 at the time of writing, according to data from Coingecko.

By contrast, the floor price of "The Saudis," a Saudi Arabian-themed nonfungible token (NFT) collection unrelated to the soccer team, skyrocketed 52.6% from 0.196 Ether (ETH) to 0.3 ETH over the same time before cooling off to a price of 0.225 ETH, around $250.

The collection's sales volume also spiked 990% over the last 24 hours, closing in on 24.5 ETH as per OpenSea data.

Despite the built-up hype for the FIFA World Cup, which officially kicked off on Nov. 20, cryptocurrency research firm Delphi Digital noted that the fan engagement platform Socios' native token Chiliz (CHZ), in addition to other soccer-based tokens representing participating nations, has also cooled off considerably over the last few days:

Football Fan Tokens have cratered over the past 3 days as the FIFA World Cup 2022 Begins:

Chilis / $CHZ: -21%
Argentina / $ARG: -17%
Portugal / $POR: -17%
Brazil / $BFT: -21%
Spain / $SNFT: -31%
Peru / $FPFT: -26%

The index (FOOTBALL) is down 21% over the period. pic.twitter.com/y7tb72R3Et
— Delphi Digital (@Delphi_Digital) November 21, 2022

CHZ is an ERC-20 token native on Socios, a blockchain-powered fan engagement platform that has been one of the largest contributors to the sports-fan token boom.

Many of the soccer–based tokens run on Socios, which has partnerships with some of the largest soccer clubs in the world, includi Barcelona F.C., Paris Saint-Germain F.C., and Manchester City F.C.

While the tokens don’t represent ownership in teams, the token allows buyers to vote in some decisions made by sponsoring teams in addition to enabling access to some rewards.

Popularity for fan-based tokens in the sporting industry has surged lately too, with token sales volumes often increasing more than 250% month-on-month since Jan. 2022.

Some appear to have viewed the tokens as an indirect way to bet on the success of such teams, despite them not being designed for that purpose.

The tokens are also impacted by factors other than the on-field success of soccer teams, such as the regular ebbs and flows of crypto markets and breaking news events.

An example is the recent FTX collapse sending the price of CHZ falling by nearly 40% since the reports of the exchange’s liquidity issues and proceeding bankruptcy.

In May, smart contract platform Algorand became the first official blockchain-based sponsor for the FIFA World Cup, which is set to wrap up on Dec. 18.

China and Taiwan’s Potential Economic Impact, Bear Market Warnings, and FC Barcelona Metaverse News — Bitcoin.com News Week in Review

August 7, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Socios signs up Major League Soccer — but it’s not a token effort yet

May 5, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Chiliz

The fan token platform is branching into American soccer with the latest partnership to bring fan engagement events to MLS without issuing fan tokens.

Fan token platform Socios has partnered with 26 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams to offer fan engagement experiences and rewards, but so far no fan tokens have been announced.

The biggest pro soccer league in the U.S. made a joint announcement with Socios on Wednesday detailing that the partnership will help fans gain access to “exclusive rewards, polls, and opportunities” for the 26 partnered MLS clubs.

Welcome to https://t.co/2FROhSNgw8, @MLS. pic.twitter.com/340He1OzQA
— Socios.com (@socios) May 4, 2022

Although the announcement did not mention any specific fan engagement events, it stated that “MLS envisions that fans will be able to have the chance to win prizes for making correct game-related predictions and for correctly answering questions.”

MLS raked in $816 million in total revenue from ticket sales and merchandising in 2019 from 8.6 million fans according to Statista and Wikipedia. Data from 2020 and 2021 is heavily skewed due to Covid restrictions.

Socios has now partnered with over 125 sports teams across eight international sports leagues according to its website. Most partnerships involve the creation of fan tokens that buyers use to participate in events and earn exclusive access to perks.

Fan tokens represent a fairly big business in their own right, with a market cap of about $255 million according to CoinGecko data. The majority of such tokens are from European soccer teams.

Engaging with fans inevitably includes issuing memorabilia, which Socios has issued through nonfungible tokens (NFT) for European soccer teams in conjunction with the Chiliz (CHZ) platform. Socios and Chiliz also signed marketing partnerships with 13 NFL teams to create NFTs.

The news however has not been warmly welcomed by MLS fans on Twitter, with some fans venting their distaste for the partnership. A quick glance on Twitter suggests the majority of tweets from fans across the league have been negative, with many pointing to Socios’s existing partnerships with European soccer leagues.

Blowback from fans may have been fueled by mainstream media coverage of the emerging market. An Apr. 29 article from sports news outlet The Athletic painted the tokens and their marketing tactics essentially as pump and dump schemes designed to raise revenues.

The official Twitter account for Dynamo Theory, the community supporting the Houston Dynamo MLS team, tweeted today “You will never see fans across MLS come together over something like they have [over] this Socios sponsorship.”

Related: Gatorade trademark applications hint at joining the metaverse

When asked to confirm what it meant by the tweet, the admin from the account told Cointelegraph that the tweet is not against the partnership, but said: “Just read the replies and quote tweets on every team’s announcement.” They offered the LA Galaxy’s thread as an example, which has a few unimpressed fans.

pic.twitter.com/sQxb9im5JE
— Carlos (@OsoFresh138) May 5, 2022

FC Barcelona set to launch NFT soccer moments with Ownix

November 4, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Barcelona moments

Ownix's CEO, Guy Elhanani, revealed to Cointelegraph that first 5 NFT's will be debuted by the club in a minting event at the end of November.

The FC Barcelona soccer club has partnered with Ownix to debut the launch of its nonfungible token, or NFT, collection focused on enhancing the connection to its global audience.

The series will showcase historic moments from the club’s 122-year history, one that includes an illustrious trophy display of 95 domestic and international triumphs, including 26 national league and five UEFA Champions League titles, according to archive data from Wikipedia.

The digital assets will be facilitated through Ownix's marketplace, and is expected to launch in the final week of November utilizing the platform’s native ERC-20 token ONX.

Cointelegraph spoke to Guy Elhanani, the CEO of Ownix, for exclusive insight into the partnership.

Cointelegraph: Will the NFT collection be immediately accessible to Barcelona's global fan base or will, for instance, season-ticket holders and other core groups be granted early access?

"We're opening our collection to all Barcelona fans and anyone around the world, we're not restricting it to the fan-base.”

NFTs are becoming rapidly adopted in the sporting landscape, not just for their lucrative financial appeal, but also as an opportunity to engage fans and supporters around the world with more immersive and personal experiences. The likes of Dapper Labs, Sorare and Socios to name a few, have all made considerable advancements in this nascent space, collaborating with some of the world’s top professional leagues, clubs and athletes.

Ethereum-based NFT marketplace Sorare has recently penned partnership agreements with Spain’s top-tier soccer division, La Liga, to launch digital cards of players, as well as Germany’s corresponding league, the Bundesliga, to introduce digital moments.

The platform has reported trading volumes in excess of $170 million throughout 2021 and expects to double that figure before the year is out.

Cointelegraph: How will the assets be launched on the marketplace? In a dutch auction, limited edition drop, minting event, etc?

“The first 5 NFTs will be launched in a minting event which will take place within the next few weeks in FCB facilities. In the first few weeks after the launch, the platform will offer unique items as NFTs. Further down the line, limited editions and collections will also be put up for auction.”

To conclude our conversion, we asked Elhanani to share his expectation for the receptiveness of Barcelona’s fans and supporters in embracing this new asset class.

He expressed high “enthusiasm” for the adoption as both parties seek to connect their relationship on a deeper level, a sentiment echoed in comments from President of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta.

Crypto Adoption: World’s Second-Highest Paid Sports Star To Receive Tokens in Transfer Deal

August 12, 2021 The Daily Hodl

PSG price resumes rally to all-time highs as Lionel Messi officially joins Paris Saint-Germain

August 12, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Chiliz

The fan token had earlier dropped by almost 40% after hitting a record high of $61.50 amid speculations that Lionel Messi would join French club Paris Saint-Germain.

PSG, a fan token launched by Paris Saint-Germain, resumed its uptrend on Thursday after Argentinian football superstar Lionel Messi confirmed that he was joining the French football club.

The PSG/USD pair jumped by 10.57% to hit an intraday high of $41.90. The pair’s latest upside move followed an almost 40% bearish correction from its all-time high of $61.53 achieved on Tuesday amid speculation that Messi would sign a multi-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain.

“Paris Saint-Germain is a possibility, yes,” Messi stated during his emotional farewell address after ending his 19-year stint at FC Barcelona on Sunday. However, he added that “nothing is confirmed” and that he is still talking about the possibility of joining Paris Saint-Germain.

The cost to purchase one PSG token almost doubled after Messi’s public address. It later corrected due to what appeared like profit-taking but resumed its bull run entering the Thursday session, almost a day after Messi finalized his two-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain.

*PSG price performance throughout its trading history. Source: TradingView*

Moreover, Paris Saint-Germain revealed that the 35-million-euro-per-season financial package to Messi would also include payments in PSG fan tokens. The news service cited sources from the football club, claiming that PSG would be a part of Messi’s “welcome package,” provided by Socios.com, the club’s fan token provider.

Socios’ own in-house currency, Chiliz (CHZ), rallied 12.30% to reach $0.368 for the first time in almost two months after the Messi-PSG news broke out.

*Chiliz price daily chart. Source: TradingView*

Tokenizing sports

The news, on the whole, served as a validation of the sports industry’s active foray into the widely untapped world of cryptocurrencies. In doing so, clubs are attempting to employ digitized tokens to provide holders the right to vote on minor decisions and enable them to buy sports merchandise.

On the other hand, fan tokens’ popularity also served as an opportunity to gauge fan sentiment for any decision a club makes. For instance, the PSG token’s rally to an all-time high based on potential Messi recruitment helped showcase the club’s followers’ approval of the decision.

Football clubs Manchester United, Arsenal, FC Barcelona and Italian AC Milan launched their fan tokens earlier this year. Even the national football team of Portugal launched its own crypto token in June on Socios.

Meanwhile, the French Football Federation announced that it would launch player nonfungible tokens (NFT) alongside Sorare, a blockchain-based fantasy soccer game.

Socios Chiliz exchange founder and CEO Alexandre Dreyfus noted that clubs that signed up with them at the early stage made massive profits in terms of revenue. When the business model of monetizing fan engagement worked financially, more clubs joined.

“The thing is, all of these teams, they talk to each other,” Dreyfus told Sports Pro Media.

“So they call each other and say, ‘hey, can we have more information about your partnership with Socios? Does it work? Are we legit? Did you really get paid the amount you got paid?’”

As a result, Socios has grown its partners from 20 to 48 so far in 2021, raking in more than $200 million in revenues.

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.

Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team joins fan token platform Socios

July 26, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Basketball

Socios, the blockchain-based platform which has tokenized many sports franchises worldwide, has partnered with the National Basketball Association’s Cleveland Cavaliers.

In a Monday announcement from blockchain-based sports platform Chiliz, Socios said its logo will be prominently featured on Cavaliers’ team jerseys for the upcoming season, scheduled to begin later this year. The platform also said it was currently in the review and development phase for “fan engagement elements” for the team, purportedly referring to tokens or digital collectibles.

“This is the start of an exciting partnership that we believe can eventually lead to greatly enhanced fan engagement for fans of the Cavaliers around the world,” said Socios and Chiliz CEO Alexandre Dreyfus. “Chiliz.com is fast developing into a global fan engagement powerhouse, where passive fans are being transitioned into real players in the day-to-day activities of their favourite teams.”

Many basketball franchises have already inked partnership deals with Socios. Earlier this month the firm announced a similar arrangement for branding and a digital presence with the Boston Celtics basketball team, and the Philadelphia 76ers joined the fan token platform in June. The partnerships with U.S.-based sports teams is part of Socios’ expansion into North America — where it plans to open a regional office in the near future.

The Socios announcement comes as basketball teams in Canada and the United States have moved seemingly in an effort to bring sports deeper into the crypto space. The Portland Trail Blazers will reportedly have crypto rewards company StormX’s logo on its team jerseys for the next five years, beginning with the upcoming season. The Canadian Elite Basketball League also announced last month it would be allowing players from its seven teams to accept a portion of their salaries in Bitcoin (BTC) starting next week.

Argentinian league rebrands to Torneo socios.com with new partnership

July 16, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Argentina Football Association

The partnership will see the country's top soccer league, previously named “Primera Division,” dubbed the “Torneo Socios.com” for the 2021/2022 season.

Argentina’s top pro-soccer league is getting a rebrand after it secured a new sponsorship deal with Chiliz, the creators of fan tokens and the Socios.com blockchain rewards app.

According to a July 15 announcement from Socios, the partnership with the Argentina Football Association (AFA) will see the Primera Division renamed as the Torneo Socios.com for the 2021/2022 season, with Torneo meaning “tournament” Spanish.

A league of our own.

We are incredibly proud to announce that for the 2021/22 season, Argentina's Primera División will be renamed Torneo https://t.co/2FROhT4RnG.@LigaAFA ⚡️ $CHZ pic.twitter.com/oLutukdtI3
— Socios.com (@socios) July 15, 2021

Torneo Socios.com was founded in 1891 and was the first professional league formed outside of the United Kingdom. The partnership is a significant move from both parties, as a crypto company has been chosen as the first commercial name used to rebrand the league.

“We are very happy to kick off this journey with Socios.com. It is a very important agreement, since it’s the first time the Argentinian league partners with a commercial brand to rename the tournament,” said President of the AFA, Claudio Tapia, as part of the announcement.

The firm also highlighted that the announcement follows from a partnership with the AFA to officially launch licensed Argentinian National Football team tokens on June 11.

The Socios app is a direct-to-consumer platform that leverages the Chiliz blockchain to tokenize sports franchises by offering officially licensed fan tokens. Fan token holders then earn various rewards and voting rights through the app.

The platform reportedly shares half of its proceeds from fan token sales with its partnered clubs, and the firm touts that fan tokens have already “generated over $150M in revenue” to be shared with its partners in 2021.

The platform has notched an extensive list of partnerships with top sporting giants such as the NBA’s Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers, The Ultimate Fighting Championship and the English Premier League’s Manchester City to name a few.

socios

Tokenizing sports

Share this video