Today, Lagardère Sports announced a partnership with blockchain fan engagement platform Socios.com. The agreement which is exclusive to France, involves Lagardère helping Socios to sign up teams.
Lagardère Sports has quite the spread of partners, with a worldwide network of athletes, clubs, federations, and sports leagues, including six French soccer clubs, 16 German soccer teams together with a roster of MLB and NFL players.
Socios.com enables users to buy fan tokens of partner clubs that can be used in certain voting events, to earn rewards, and for accessing exclusive merchandise.
Currently, nearly all deals of Socios.com are with football and esports teams. These include OG, Juventus, Paris Saint Germain, Atlético de Madrid, Galatasaray, West Ham, A.S. Roma, CA Independiente, and most recently FC Barcelona. Now, Lagardère Sports will help them to sign more French football teams.
Meanwhile, blockchain is already being trialed by some French clubs. Blockchain collectibles platform Sorare recently licensed three French Ligue 1 clubs, nOlympique Lyonnais, FC Nante, and LOSC Lille.
“We have been very clear in communicating our goal to onboard 50 IPs to the Socios.com app in 2020 and I look forward to working hand-in-hand with Lagardère Sports to help us achieve that target, targeting Lagardère’s extensive network of athletes, clubs, federations and sports leagues to build the future of fan engagement for rights holders across Europe and the US,” said Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Chiliz & Socios.com.
Blockchain deals by football clubs and other sports organizations are currently focused on two things — tokens and collectibles.
Socios.com’s prerogative is fan tokens, which is also been trialed by competitor Havas. It aims to reward fans with tokens for social media activity and game participation.
Meanwhile, Animoca Brands’ unit Stryking is working with Bayern Munich for blockchain collectibles. Animoca Brands is also the official licensee of the F1 blockchain game F1 Delta Time, which offers cars as collectible tokens.
Another prominent name in blockchain collectibles is Fantastec SWAP, which has licensing deals with Arsenal, Real Madrid, and Borussia Dortmund.
Collectibles company Panini America has also stepped into the field and is releasing blockchain trading cards for each physical card.
