French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) entered into a multi-year strategic partnership with blockchain platform Socios.com, to be the "Official Branded Cryptocurrency Partner" of the club.
PSG claims to be the first football club in the world to announce a long-term cryptocurrency strategy. It will also be the first team to join the Socios.com platform.
The partnership will help launch the world's first Fan Token Offering (FTO) for the PSG fanbase.
Fans will be able to engage and have a say in club matters through mobile voting and polling platforms using the fan token that will be will be listed on the Socios.com platform. Token owners will also be granted access to exclusive fan rewards, content and experiences.
Socios is expected to benefit from a wide range of marketing rights including in-stadium, TV and digital exposure.
Socios.com is powered by Malta-based esports voting platform ChiliZ, which allows both esports and sports entities to tokenize their voting rights to their fan bases to crowd-manage sports and esports organizations.
While football clubs enter into crypto deals, Israeli social trading platform eToro signed an advertising deal last month with seven of UK's Premier League football clubs, for which payment will be made in Bitcoin.
The integration of blockchain and cryptocurrency has the potential to improve the process of making purchases by clubs and supporters. Football teams have previously embraced cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
In late July, Gibraltar United Football Club claimed to be the world's first football team to introduce cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin as payment for players after it signed a sponsorship partnership with blockchain-based platform Quantocoin.
London-based Arsenal Football Club signed a sponsorship deal with CashBet, a cryptocurrency, in January.
Football superstars such as Roberto Carlos, Luis Figo, Michael Owen and Lionel Messi have also formed partnerships with cryptocurrency projects.
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