Household football name, Barcelona has taken a deep dive into crypto with its new blockchain partnership. The agreement will see the Spanish football team sell ‘Barca Fan Tokens’ to its fans.
The partnership, made with blockchain firms Socios.com and Chiliz, empowers Barcelona fans with tokens to participate in polls that influence the activities of the La Liga team. Owners of the team’s tokens will also be able to earn prizes from the club.
Purchases of ‘Barca Fan Tokens’ can be made through a Fan Token Offering (FTO). Participants in the token sale will also, for a period, receive $CHZ and Barça Fan Tokens for free.
According to Barcelona’s board member and head of commercial area, Josep Pont,
“We are proud to welcome Socios.com to the Barça family as a new global partner. 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. 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.”
Barcelona is keen on using the fan tokens in its global expansion strategy. The team is looking for new channels to connect with its fans around the world. These fans will be able to purchase the tokens on Socios.com app for €2 at the initial point of sale in Q2 of 2020. 40 million tokens will be available for sale.
This marks the early stages of a growing trend with more sports teams and individuals creating their own cryptocurrencies or derivatives of cryptocurrencies. Turkish football team, Galatasaray recently revealed a partnership with Socios.com to create a token. Fans who buy the $GAL token will benefit from discounts on purchases of club merchandise as well as VIP tickets to games.
