This summer transfer window, Lionel Messi’s move was striking. Not just because of his incredible salary, €41m per season + bonuses, but also because of PSG’s attitude towards technology. For example, part of the Argentine forward’s “welcome package” will be paid in $PSG Fan Tokens cryptocurrency, created with Socios.com, the largest platform to date for issuing such currencies.
Sport is changing for the better every year, not the least of which is modern developments, including the financial market.
What is Fan Tokens
Despite the word “Token” in its name, this currency has considerable differences from the usual popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum. BTC allows traders to make financial investments, and people around the world can make payments at betting operators, for example. Websites like bookmaker-ratings.com have reviews of gambling companies to know who accept ETH and other cryptos as currency.
Fan Tokens, meanwhile, have other advantages. They allow you to become not just a fan of a sports club but an Influencer. And it’s not just an honorary title, but an opportunity to have a tangible impact on different aspects of life for your favourite team. The Socios app runs voting for fan tokens holders to make a decision. The very first selection Juventus fans made was to change the goal celebration song. The vote was won by “Song 2” by Blur.
Although different places don’t accept the tokens as means of payment, they are on the market, and the exchange rate also depends on supply and demand. For example, the $PSG token spiked in value more than twice since the news of Lionel Messi’s was released.
NFT as the next step of fan-player interaction
A trend in blockchain in recent years has been the issuance of NFT (non-fungible token) items. In simple terms, it’s a unique digital copy that confirms ownership by the buyer.
Just so you know that NFT is the real deal, Russia’s State Hermitage Museum collaborated with a big crypto platform. They minted and sold some Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, and Leonardo da Vinci works.
In sports, NFT collections exist as another way for athletes to interact with their fans. These works are usually unique images, produced in a series of different tiers and sold by auction (the highest bidder wins). The most expensive lot often offers additional bonuses: an online conversation with the athlete who released the collection or tickets to a VIP lounge at an event where the player will be participating.
Specifically, the NFT-version of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first tweet was sold for an insane $2.9m this autumn.
Blockchain games
Another way for fans to interact with the team is through blockchain projects such as Sorare. In essence, it is a fantasy football game combined with a collectable card game that allows you to earn bonuses in ETH based on the success of the actual players depicted on the cards.
For smaller teams, cooperating with such projects is one of the most significant opportunities for promotion and increasing quotability in the digital environment. Top clubs like Inter, PSG, Real Madrid enter into partnerships and draw attention and new players to Sorare with their name. There are now 177 officially licensed clubs in the project.
