September 4 – FIFA will launch its range of official digital collectibles later this month, starting with a series of World Cup ‘moments’ from the men’s and women’s finals.
September 1 – The Argentine Football Association (AFA) has confirmed Socios.com will continue as exclusive providers of the official $ARG Fan Token until at least 2026, despite the two partners falling out in a legal dispute over rights in January.
August 24 – Major League Soccer (MLS) has agreed a multi-year agreement with EA Sports that will see them extend their partnership beyond the end of the FIFA23 video game license that ends this year before the game is renamed EA Sports FC.
August 23 – Sports streaming service DAZN, which has built a base worldwide of about 4 million subscribers on a sports output underpinned by football, is venturing into the sports betting business.
August 22 – Premier League table toppers Arsenal have extended their partnership with Konami Digital Entertainment in what the club is saying is a “long-term partnership from the 2023/23 season onwards”.
August 19 – Fan token specialist Socios.com has secured regulatory approval as a service provider of virtual currencies and digital wallets for its fan engagement and rewards platform in Italy.
August 16 – Broadcaster BeIN Sports has partnered with social media platform Twitter to share content during the World Cup in November and December.
August 11 – UEFA has issued a tender for licensing rights to NFTs for national team football competitions.
August 2 – FC Barcelona has sold a 24.5% stake in Barca Studios, the club’s digital content and distribution hub, for $100 million to blockchain technology provider Chiliz.com, owner of the Socios.com Fan Token and NFT platform.
July 27 – Micro-payment streaming platform Recast has launched a Manchester City channel that is available globally and kicked off with the club’s friendly against Bayern Munich last weekend in Green Bay.
July 25 – Juventus is returning to EA Sports’ FIFA games for the FIFA 23 edition, leaving rival Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer video game where the club has been exclusive for the past three years.
July 25 – Fantasy football game Sorare has added Italy’s Serie A to deals it holds with Spain’s LaLiga, Germany’s Bundesliga and the MLS in the US, to release non-fungible token (NFT) player cards for the coming 2022-23 season.
July 20 – The cryptocurrency crash undoubtedly slowed the growth of blockchain-based sports marketing opportunities like Fan Tokens and NFTs but a new agreement between OneFootball and Italy’s Serie A is proof of life that the digital platforms could still come roaring back.
July 13 – The noise around club Fan Tokens has died down recently following the cryptocurrency crash and criticism of the low tradeable values of the tokens. It hasn’t, however, stopped Real Sociedad becoming the seventh LaLiga club on the socios.com platform.
July 8 – With the deregulation of the online betting business state-to-state across the US, Major League Soccer (MLS) has appointed the bookmaker sales of IMG – IMG Arena – as its official data distribution in a deal that could net the US league $270 million, according to reports.