Paris Saint German (PSG) is on the headlines again, this time for financial news of a different kind. The club is accustomed to being on the news for financial issues such as big money record-breaking transfers of soccer players and possible breach of financial fair play rules (FFP). This time, PSG have joined the crypto train with the announcement of an impending launch of a crypto token for the football club’s fan base. The club has sealed a partnership with blockchain platform socios.com to launch a token ecosystem.
PSG is a globally renowned football club and current French champions, while Socios describes itself as a digitized and tokenized form of crowd management concept akin to that of Real Madrid and Barcelona. This platform is powered by ChilliZ which is a sports blockchain venture. ChilliZ enjoys support from high profile players in the crypto industry such as crypto exchange, Binance. According to Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of ChilliZ, the company has made about 66 million dollars in funding. PSG partnership with the platform will see the club launch a token offering that will give fans access to branded PSG tokens. These branded tokens have the ability to give a fan VIP status as well as rewards. The token will also come with voting rights for diehard fans.
Thanks to the tokens, the fans will be able to vote on cosmetic decisions such as choosing the stadium music on match days, choosing club logos and the color of the club shirts. Fans will also be able to vote on certain sports aspects such as charity line-ups, friendly games, summer tours, a man of the match as well as the clubs most valuable player in a season. Dreyfus highlighted that the strategy here employed by PSG and Socios represents a limited mechanism which doesn’t tokenize the existing corporate structure of the club and is focused on incentivizing and monetizing fan engagement as well and experiences via cryptocurrency.
According to Marc Armstrong, PSG’s Chief partnership officer, the football club is determined to leverage the opportunities that can be provided by cryptocurrency. He added that the revolutionary technology will have an important impact on the club’s overall business strategy and the way we engage with the fan base. The PSG tokens will be officially available on the Socios.com marketplace but only against the chilliZ native token ($CHZ. The club’s FTO is already on. Dreyfus also stated that though PSG was the first high profile football club to get involved in the initiative, it aims to engage millions of soccer fans of different clubs all around the world. this will help educate a larger demographic about crypto and the blockchain.
