Atlético de Madrid, a Spanish football (soccer) team, has partnered with Chiliz, a sports blockchain, to create Fan Tokens, a platform that will give fans special access to team merchandise, information, and experiences.
The team “finished 4th in UEFA’s Club Coefficients rankings for 2019” according to a release and will join other football teams like Juventus and West Ham United on the Socios.com fan platform.
“The Atlético de Madrid Fan Token will be priced at €2 and will be available exclusively through Socios.com in Autumn 2019 for the 19/20 season. Fan Tokens can also be hunted for free through the app’s augmented-reality geo-location feature Token Hunt,” wrote the creators. “Atlético de Madrid Fan Token holders will enjoy exclusive rights on the platform, including access to unique and exclusive experiences, promotions, draws and polls.”
Fans will also be able to get merchandise using the tokens and exchange tokens with each other using the app.
Atlético de Madrid is just one of the many football clubs that took to the blockchain in the past two years. Top French league team, Paris Saint-Germain, issued its own cryptocurrency on Socios in 2018 and the platform plans on adding many more clubs to its roster.
“Our ambition is to build the world’s biggest global football community and marketplace for football fans alongside demonstrating that blockchain and cryptocurrency is the trusted technology of the mainstream,” said Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO and founder last year.
The platform avoids many of the complexities of cryptocurrency trading and instead acts as more of a fan support system that happens to use fan coins. Users can earn more tokens by taking polls on the app and gain prestige as they rise in the rankings of superfans.
Photo by Jannes Glas on Unsplash.