Football fans are passionate about their teams and willing to spend lots of money on them. This passion creates a foundation for football to succeed in business. Teams have been utilising that passion and turning it into money for decades: merchandise, tickets, kits, etc. Sources of income have undergone little change, with the exception of new media and technologies.
Football teams have broken into the non fungible token (NFT) market. NFTs or fan tokens are digital assets that grant voting rights in polls and privileges such as promotions and rewards. They have become extremely popular with fan investors and the football clubs themselves.
These tokens are unlike football club stocks and shares when it comes to ownership properties. They are far more volatile. Market changes, investor mood swings, and high-profile transfers of world-famous football players can have a dramatic effect on their value.
At BanklessTimes.com we took a look at some of the most popular fan tokens.
Dramatic market swings
In November last year, data showed that Paris Saint-Germain’s market cap exceeded that of FC Barcelona by over $20 million. Messi’s move to PSG provoked an unprecedented impact on the token’s trading volume. The volume and price spiked with the newfound attention the club began to enjoy. It was reported that Messi got “a large amount” of tokens as a fee to join the French club.
However, Messi’s departure from FC Barcelona didn’t have much of an impact on the price of the FC Barcelona Fan Token. In the summer of 2022, Barcelona made several key signings amid rumours of financial troubles. Neither these rumours nor the announcements of Depay and Aguero influenced the token’s trading price or volume, which remained largely unchanged at the time.
The tables have turned, as you can see from the above data. Barcelona FC’s token market cap is currently around $2.5 million higher than PSG’s.
The unceasing popularity of football fan tokens
In December 2022, Coca-Cola and Crypto.com launched NFT artwork in anticipation of the Qatar World Cup. The cryptocurrency exchange hosted 10,000 NFTs during the games based on player “heatmap” and captured goals, tackles, attacks, and other unique moments.
Events unrelated to football can also impact these tokens’ prices and trading volumes. Binance listed the Barcelona FC Token in April 2021, and its price skyrocketed thereafter. Around that time, there was a sudden growth in the market cap of the Catalan club token.
What does NFT ownership mean?
Owning a token means you can purchase or access specific things that real money can’t buy. These include exclusive content and rewards, but above all, experiences. Ownership also gives you the right to vote on decisions about the club. For example, only owners of Juventus tokens could vote on the design of the bus the team travels in. Such experiences may seem immaterial, but they help forge an intangible connection with the club, which the club can monetize effectively and organically.
A growing number of use cases
The number and scope of use cases of football fan tokens are constantly increasing. You can pay for food and drinks at the stadium, buy something from one of the club’s sponsors, or use NFTs as credit in the club stores. Football clubs have a vast array of opportunities to use this new technology to deepen their relationships with fans. They can keep turning love and passion into money – something they have been doing ever since the sport became a lucrative investment.
Jonathan Merry, CEO of BanklessTimes.comThe increasing popularity of football fan tokens shows that these digital assets are here to stay. They are like birth certificates of a creator’s descendants, but they are more than that – the emanation of passion and love, in this case of one’s favorite football team.
