Nikolas Sargeant
Sports sponsorships are the new focus for many cryptocurrency companies looking to extend their reach into the mainstream.
Less than a month ago, the UFC struck a deal with crypto.com in what was a deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The partnership between the worlds’ leading combat sports organization and one of the pioneering sites for the crypto industry, turned a lot of heads and opened the floodgates for many other sports teams to follow suit.
The latest team to do so is the soccer team Inter Milan. The iconic blue and black striped jersey will retire it’s a long-standing relationship with Italian tire makers Pirelli, favouring greener pastures with crypto. While they may not be the first sports team to do such a thing, they are certainly among Europe’s best and the deal is one of many with digital token platform Socios.
What is Socios?
The company is registered in Malta and Switzerland and has also announced partnerships with Inter’s neighbours AC Milan and Italian giants Juventus. Beyond Italy, they’ve also partnered with FC Barcelona, Arsenal and Manchester City. These teams will not wear the shirt sponsor as Inter does, but they will provide a service to fans allowing them to trade and sell digital tokens related to their favourite teams.
The system will provide supporters unique access to promotions and rewards, as well as great new interactive features such as being able to pick the song which is played when the team scores. While this doesn’t apply to all teams, this is something that is being implemented by Juventus for the upcoming season.
How does Socios work?
Much like all cryptocurrency businesses, Socios has its own cryptocurrency, Chiliz. Supports will be able to purchase team tokens via their own team app. While we can only really speculate as to what other rewards may become available to Chiliz holders, the initial plan looks to provide a far more interactive fan experience.
Diego Simone’s Atlético Madrid managed to clinch the title back in May, at which point the value of their native token rose to more than $50 and reached a 24-hour trading volume of more than $300. Then, within weeks it fell to less than a fifth of that price. It’s true that the value of Socios tokens is real, but it does share the same volatility as other cryptocurrencies on the market.
With regulations for crypto businesses tightening, it’s important that sports teams and organizations do their homework before partnering with emerging crypto companies. The fast-moving cryptocurrency sphere is experiencing rapid growth in the number of emerging new businesses, which should encourage stringent analysis of potential partnerships.
These deals are likely to become a lot more frequent and we can expect many more before the year is out.
