February 13 – FC Barcelona have become the latest club to embrace blockchain technology with an agreement with Chiliz to launch a ‘Barca Fan Token’.
Barca joins an elite group of clubs. PSG, Roma, Atletico de Madrid, Galatasaray and Juventus have all launched fan token schemes. West Ham and Independiente of Argentina are still to launch.
Barca Fan Tokens (to be called $BAR within the Socios.com app) will be available in the second quarter of this year. There will be 40 million Barca Fan Tokens issued costing €2, but Chiliz says not all will be available in the initial Fan Token Offering (FTO). The tokens are tradable and the price can move depending on club activity. If all the tokens were available and bought at the offer price the club would raise €80 million – this money is split on an undisclosed revenue share model between Barca and Chiliz.
The Barca fan token will operate through the Socios.com voting and rewards platform and will enable fans to participate in surveys and polls around the club. As well as the right to vote on club topics, fans will be rewarded for every different action taken on the platform, with leaderboards and reward points that can be exchanged for merchandise and club experiences.
The move into using blockchain for a fan token ‘currency’ comes hard on the heels of Barca’s announcement of a major digital push across the club.
“This agreement will give us the chance to set up innovative marketing and partnership activations with a clear focus on the digital realm to take the Club closer to our fans around the world,” said Josep Pont, Barcelona board member and head of commercial area (pictured left). “This agreement also forms part of FC Barcelona’s goal to become associated with leading brands that can help us consolidate our new commercial and digital strategy, with the development of new streams for the generation of resources helping to make us a benchmark both on and off the field.”
Chiliz has pioneered the use of blockchain and the issue of fan tokens within the football world, the closest football has come to issuing a digital cryptocurrency.
Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO and founder of Socios.com & Chiliz (pictured right) , said: “Adding FC Barcelona tans to the Socios.com global community takes us one step closer to our goal of mainstream adoption of blockchain. Every time a fan downloads the app, we are furthering education, and every time a fan buys a Fan Tokens, we are strengthening the use cases of this innovative technology.”
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