Juventus have signed a multi-year strategic partnership with blockchain and crypto platform Socios.com to create the Juventus Official Fan token. This comes two weeks after Socios.com announced it had signed a similar deal with French football club Paris Saint Germain (PSG).
Juventus boast 340 million supporters across the globe and a 60 million social media fanbase. The tradeable Fan Token $JUV will enable fans to participate in a mobile voting and polling platform.
Giorgio Ricci, Co-Chief Revenue Officer of Juventus stated that:
At the Club we are always very careful and pro-active towards innovation and new technologies ... we believe we can offer new opportunities to our worldwide fan base to engage in cutting-edge way with their favorite club.
Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO & Founder of Socios.com said he wants to onboard more than 50 football clubs in coming years:
We have started at the very top, with some of the biggest names in football, and our ambition is to build the world’s biggest global football community and marketplace for football fans alongside demonstrating that blockchain and cryptocurrency is the trusted technology of the mainstream.
Juventus has already begun implementing this technology, and have given fans the first opportunity to join the voting process through Socios.com, deciding the platform’s official music which will be used to replace Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis, the song that currently plays whenever the Juventus team scores a goal at the Allianz Stadium.
On 12 September, Avaí Futebol Clube, a second division football team in Brazil announced that it is creating a cryptocurrency to raise $20 million and develop a digital ecosystem for its fans. The club wants to qualify for the first division of Brazilian football.
The governing European football body UEFA, recently announced that its new ticketing app leverages blockchain, aiming to prevent ticket copying and theft. The UEFA Super Cup match between Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid in Estonia used the system, with all the tickets were distributed via mobile apps. See demo video for a close look of how the technology was used.
Voting by fans on the goal song is a small start, but the continued growth of blockchain systems into sport is showing the marathon of technology adoption is continuing.