News hardware By holding an NFT, these supporters were able to sign a player to their favorite football club
Published on 07/30/2022 at 16:35
Besides speculation, the technology of non-fungible tokens (NFT) can prove useful… An English football team has experimented with the possibilities since it has allowed supporters holding a NFT from the club to be able to vote for the position. of the rookie porchaine of the transfer window.
Crawley Town FC take transfer window away from NFT owners
The English professional football team Crawley Town FC playing in “league two” took advantage of their NFTs to empower their supporters. The club from England’s Division 4 allowed fans holding a non-fungible token to act in a private vote. So, the community recently had their say on what type of player the team should sign.
Voting for the transfer window began on June 15 through an ephemeral Discord channel. During this vote, the club recorded a multitude of participation from 1000 individuals. Following this, the owners of NFT wanted to recruit a midfielder.
Precisely, following the vote, Crawley Town FC announced the signing of young midfielder Jayden Davis on a free transfer.
“A lot of NFT projects are just speculation with no real tangible backbone, no real true story. Do you have a football club to cheer on every week? It’s a spine that people get attached to. “If we can bring that to this crypto audience, especially if we’re able to gain promotion and move up the English football league ranks, then that’s an even bigger story that people around the world everyone can participate, ”explains Preston Johnson, co-owner of the club, to the Daily Mail.
This initiative to incorporate NFTs into the club does not happen by chance…
Crawley Town FC bought by a company specializing in crypto
Indeed, the club was recently acquired for 20 million euros last April by the American company WAGMI United. The company is dedicated to “bringing the most innovative ideas and passionate Web3 communities to the sports world.” Thus, the club’s new owners are experimenting with so-called web3 technologies to offer a new experience to fans.
Last June, the team also marketed jerseys that could only be acquired by owning these famous NFTs from a collection of 10,000 tokens. However, to access its “privileges” the cost of entry remains high, count 0.35 ETH, or around 600 euros at current prices to own an NFT from the division 4 club.
With this type of action, Crawley Town FC joins the long list of professionals wishing to develop the uses of blockchain in sport.
Web3 takes over sport
This proximity between the world of web3 and that of sport is not new, as evidenced by the many recent partnerships like Cristiano Ronaldo with Bianance (cryptocurrency platform) or Kylian Mbappe with the game NFT Sorare.
Also, other companies such as Socios have developed a similar decision-making experience for fans. Through blockchain technology, team supporters can make multiple choices for their club. For example on the Socios app, you can vote for the bus color or other club details by investing fan tokens. The platform works with the biggest since Socios currently has teams like PSG or Manchester City among its members.
Nevertheless, these new uses of cryptocurrencies and NFTs in sport are very recent, therefore several points remain to be improved, in particular on the speculative aspect of these assets.