Inside Socios – football’s new $200 million partner
Alamy
The crypto-backed tradeable fan token has raised $200 million for the game’s overall economy since last year, with 34 club partnerships – and counting.
Fan tokens have nevertheless raised concern about lack of crypto-regulation and “monetising” fan engagement, with West Ham dropping a Socios deal after supporter protests.
Off The Pitch breaks down how clubs monetise their relationship with Socios and shows how €3.4 billion of tokens were traded in one 2 week period for a single club.
In a separate exclusive interview, Socios CEO Alexandre Dreyfus responds to concerns.
“It's all about education, education, education. It is how we can try to share our vision about what we believe is the next phase of fan engagement in the next five, 10 years. How clubs can embrace it or not.”
1 November 2021 - 3:32 PM
In a global football economy battered by the effects of Covid, the emergence of Socios must seem at times like a magic pill. The company has, by its own account, conjured up $200 million in revenues payable to clubs since its inception three years ago.
Arsenal, Barcelona, PSG and Manchester City are just some of the company’s 34 football partnerships and counting. Financially stricken giants of the game, like Inter Milan and Valencia, now carry Socios as shirt sponsors.
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