Italian football giants Juventus have announced a global multi-year partnership with Socios.com to launch their own cryptocurrency.
The deal will see the blockchain-based fan engagement platform launch a new cryptocurrency known as the Juventus Official Fan Token for the Serie A champions.
The partnership forms part of the club’s move to leverage blockchain technology for enhancing global fan engagement and expand their global audience, particularly outside of Europe. The club currently has more than 60 million social media followers and an estimated 340 million supporters worldwide.
The tradeable tokens will be made available for fans via a Fan Token Offering (FTO) scheme in the first quarter of 2019. Juventus supporters will be able to purchase tokens through the club’s Socios.com platform, allowing them to engage with the club through mobile voting and polling.
French football champions Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) became the first club to strike a deal with Socios.com this month to launch cryptocurrency via FTO.
Giorgio Ricci, Juventus head of global partnerships and corporate revenues, said, “At the club we are always very careful and proactive towards innovation and new technologies. Together with Socios.com we believe we can offer new opportunities to our worldwide fanbase to engage in a cutting-edge way with their favourite club.”
Alexandre Dreyfus, Socios co-founder and chief executive, added, “Our long-term aim is to get more than 50 football clubs onboard and we hope to inject an additional US$300 million into the sports economy over the next few years.
“We have started at the very top, with some of the biggest names in football, and our ambition is to build the world’s biggest global football community and marketplace for football fans.”
A number of football clubs around the world are tapping into the blockchain boom for raising additional funds and improving fan engagement and following.
Arsenal and Leicester City are among the Premier League clubs that have embraced blockchain techonology. Arsenal named CashBet as their official blockchain partner back in January, while Leicester City recently signed a deal with FansUnite.
Meanwhile, the US sports leagues have inked blockchain-based deals recently. The Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) partnered with Seattle-based startup Player Tokens in August to create a crypto-collectibles offering, while the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) acquired a minority stake in live-streaming platform SportsCastr in the same month.
No comments:
Post a Comment