Barcelona football club, the dominant Catalonian team colloquially known as Barça, have announced they will be launching their own fan token at the end of the current season in partnership with blockchain-based fan engagement specialists Chiliz.
Supporters will be able to receive rewards and take part in voting in aspects relating to the club by using the Barça Fan Tokens (BAR) on Chiliz’s Socios.com platform. The rewards on offer, which will be awarded to those who interact and engage with the platform, will take the form of “…exclusive merchandise and unique once-in-a-lifetime experiences linked to Barça.”
Fan Token Offering
Barcelona fans have previously been exposed to elements of blockchain through their club’s shirt sponsorship deal with Japanese conglomerate and cryptocurrency wallet provider Rakuten, as well as star player Lionel Messi’s ambassador role with the Sirin Labs project.
According to Josep Pont, FC Barcelona Board Member and Head of Commercial Area, the new agreement with Chiliz will provide the opportunity “…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.”
Pont suggests that the deal “…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 on and off the field.”
The CEO and Founder of Socios.com and Chiliz, Alexandre Dreyfus, expressed excitement in engaging with Barcelona’s approximate 300 million fans worldwide and said “Adding FC Barcelona fans to the Socios.com global community takes us one step closer to our goal of mainstream adoption of blockchain.”
Dreyfus believes increasing adoption will come as “Every time a fan downloads the app, we are furthering education, and every time a fan buys a Fan Token, we are strengthening the use cases of this innovative technology.”
The fan token offering (FTO) is scheduled to begin in Q2 2020 and 40 million BAR tokens will be available for sale, initially priced at €2 each.
