Crypto fans are tokens for football fans who lack games

Football fan tokens emerged as an offshoot of the cryptocurrency tokenization boom sometime around 2019. In essence, fan tokens serve as a tokenized share of influence, giving supporters of sports organizations the opportunity to vote in clubs, win unique prizes, and gain a little voice. The club’s decisions are designed to stimulate fan participation. , But usually just for aesthetic considerations.

However, despite the seemingly superficial nature of fan tokens, their popularity will only increase over time, just like major European football clubs such as Barcelona, AC Milan, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and many more have adopted tokens.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, stadiums and stadiums are holding games behind closed doors, thus witnessing a considerable increase in adoption rates in 2020 and 2021. The governing body of European football, UEFA, Aforementionedd Due to the lack of ticket revenue and broadcast revenue, major clubs will share the loss of 8 billion euros ($9.7 billion).

With this in mind, it might make sense to see major clubs working with a blockchain fan token platform like Chiliz, which hosts fan token products through the Socios website.As Report According to Reuters, Chiliz shares half of its token sales proceeds with its partner clubs, and the company expects sales to reach US$200 million for the remainder of 2021.

Malcolm Clark, chairman of the Football Supporters Association of England and Wales, said that during the pandemic, the club will undoubtedly make money by launching fan tokens. But Clark said it’s not a good idea to give fans a pretentious statement about the way the club operates, or “trying to squeeze extra money from supporters by making irrelevant’participation’ online polls”. .

A spokesperson for AC Milan, Launch fan token During the pandemic lock-in period, he stated that the launch of fan tokens is a strategic move aimed at increasing its digital influence and “closer” to fans.

According to statistics, the total value of the fan token market on all platforms is currently US$260 million, an increase of 900% over the same period last year. data From FanTokenStats.

However, this statistic only tells half of it. After reaching its peak in April and May, the value of fan tokens plummeted along with other cryptocurrency markets, and fell more than 55% in the ensuing turmoil, and the total value once fell to 228 million U.S. dollars.

This volatility, coupled with the overall increase in game day costs, made some fans feel that their voices were being heard. West Ham United Independent Supporters Association President Su Watson asked: “Why do you have to pay to have any say in the club?”

Increase season ticket costs and expensive For the football belt, Watson said that fan tokens are just an example of more cost accumulation. “It will rise, it is not cheap,” she said.Watson’s comments hinted at the growing trend of European football, especially in the case of many people where the cost of fans has soared. Look at As a gentrification that was once a pastime of the working class.

related: NBA Top Shot leads the explosive growth of NFT with $230 million in sales

Several major football teams in Europe and the United Kingdom have recently tried to form their own European Super League, which further reminds fans of the superficial nature of tokens.Eventually form the goal of breaking away lose, But did not try to consult fan groups, broadcasters, or advertisers on the formation of the alliance, let alone fan token holders.

In recent months, the sports world has also worked hand in hand with irreplaceable tokens because the NFT boom has attracted countless Sports organization And brands that use this technology to auction unique fan experiences.

in spite of NFT sales fell by more than 90% Since peaking in the second quarter, sports-related NFTs have actually shown the greatest resilience to market declines, dropping only 55%. At the time of launch, the sports-based NFT platform Sorare was one of the top three apps in terms of daily sales, having sold $1.5 million in the past 24 hours. According to statistics, its sales in the past week exceeded 6,000 pieces, slightly higher than the 57 pieces of the art collection CryptoPunk. data From irreplaceable.