One of the biggest things in the world is Football and football fans are some of the most passionate people in the world. Over the last few years, the growth of Crypto and NFT’s has been exponential and as they started to take over the finance industry and eventually they started to get a foothold in the sport industry and football was a big part of this, with one of the biggest clubs in the world, Man City, signed a crypto sponsorship deal which further shows the growth of Crypto.
Clubs and Their Relationships with Crypto
Some of the world’s biggest clubs make some form of Crypto coins for their fans, this is one of the things that helps the fans engage more with clubs and potentially make money while supporting their clubs. They could potentially make a large profit as Cryptos and NFTs are a form of betting, unlike Euro 2024 odds it is a longer type of betting as the value of these coins can fall or grow over time. The main company that handles all of the coins is Socios, they are one of the largest companies for virtual coins in the world.
Controversy With The Club Cryptos
As much as they are popular, Cryptos and NFTs come with a lot of baggage. Personally, we really enjoy collecting NFTs and Cryptos, but we aree aware of the negative connotations that come with these terms. The reason that people don’t like Cryptos and don’t invest is because of the swings that the currency can take. Unlike most of the other main investments that people do, like Stocks or Retail, Cryptos can drop and lose all their value very quickly and people who have invested a lot of money can lose it all. Obviously, like most investments, you can lose a lot of money but the main issue people have is that it is random and can happen so quickly. This is why the clubs using Crypto and NFTs are looked at so negatively. A lot of the clubs who agreed to make Cryptos received backlash from fans because of the risks that came with it. On the opening day, a lot of the crypto values dropped a significant amount, with the BBC reporting that Lazio and Man City received a drop of 50% and 70% respectively.
NFTs Explanation
Another form of Crypto that is being used a lot by clubs is NFTs or Non-fungible Tokens, these are digital animations that are very expensive and are specific to clubs. However, this is changing, at the start of clubs using NFTs, a lot has changed since this time. At the start, clubs like Rangers, Man City and Juventus had official club NFTs that were digital images and videos unique to each buyer that used a code to show the ownership. As NFTs grew, it wasn’t just football clubs who used NFTs, a company named Sorare attacked this market with a game with collectable and pliable football cards that were NFTs and made the players money. Sorare had a very quick rise to the top of the football NFT game and still gets success even after the 5 years since its inception.
Chelsea’s NFTs
Chelsea was one of the first clubs to have auctions, as they listed 100 historic Chelsea items for sale. They were announced to be selling items such as old football programmes from 1905 and kits. This is the newest version of NFTs and is more valuable than the traditional NFTs that are received poorly. After the initial sale of these items and the success that it brought to the club, other clubs followed suit, with Arsenal, United and Liverpool following suit and also finding a lot of success. The reason these do so well is because they are items a football fan will love even if they don’t like NFTs, these are items that a fan of a club could find joy in owning. If my club did an NFT sale for old, historic items I would be first in line to get some iconic memorabilia.
