Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), a French professional football club, has announced a multi-year strategic partnership with the Malta-based blockchain platform Socios.com to launch its own cryptocurrency, for enhancing and evolving its fan engagement. As an official branded cryptocurrency partner, Socios.com will work alongside the club to develop PSG’s blockchain strategy to leverage the technology and develop the world’s first Fan Token Offering (FTO) for the fanbase. The deal is reportedly worth several million euros.
The partnership forms part of the club’s broader strategy to integrate blockchain technology, to enhance its relationship with fans and business operations. Socios.com is the tokenization platform for sports teams which uses the blockchain technology to engage and monetize fans globally and is powered by a sports blockchain venture chiliZ, which has the backing of high profile crypto industry players that include leading crypto exchange Binance.
The PSG fan token will be listed on the Socios.com platform and will allow fans to engage with the club through mobile voting and polling platforms. Token owners will also be granted access to exclusive fan rewards, content, and experiences. Through Socios.com, transactions will be fully digital, secure, transparent and entirely connected to the real fan experience. Marc Armstrong, Chief Partnership Officer of Paris Saint-Germain said:
“Always at the forefront of digital innovation, Paris Saint-Germain is determined to leverage the opportunities that cryptocurrency can provide. This revolutionary technology will have an important impact on the Club’s overall business strategy and the way we engage with our fanbase. We are very pleased to welcome Socios.com in the Paris Saint-Germain family.”
Alexandre Dreyfus, Founder & CEO of Socios.com, said:
“We are delighted and very proud to have signed Paris Saint-Germain as our first club to work on the evolution of its fan engagement strategy through the Socios.com blockchain platform. As well as being a leader on the football pitch, Paris Saint-Germain is also a digital pioneer and this demonstrates its leadership in innovation. We admire the Club’s vision in being the first club in world football to adopt this new technology and set a new standard in fan engagement.” Socios.com will create a new connection between Paris Saint-Germain and its global fan base, helping the club to integrate blockchain technology as part of its fan engagement strategy."
The PSG club, who signed Brazilian superstar Neymar for a world record fee of 222 million euros ($264 million) last year, is reportedly keeping a deadline of spring 2019 to start issuing its proprietary tokens, making it potentially one of the first football clubs anywhere to do so.
Last month, eToro, a global investment platform for crypto assets as well as traditional financial instruments, partnered with seven Premier League clubs for marketing opportunities, the first in football to be paid using bitcoin. According to some media estimates, the deal was worth somewhere between £4 and £5 million.