Espanyol enters the business of fan tokens. The white-and-blue entity has signed a sponsorship agreement for the seasons 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-2024 with the Turkish company Bitci, which will launch these digital products that will bear the name of the Spanish. These fan tokens they can be bought by purchasing the cryptocurrencies that Bitci sells and launches on the market, a company that has been working with other clubs and football teams for a few months now. This operation means Espanyol’s entry into an emerging economy, that of cryptocurrencies, which is gaining more and more weight in many countries and economic sectors.
This is a very profitable commercial alliance, in economic terms, for the Spanish club, as Bitci will be in the second tier of the pyramid of sponsors, surpassed only by Riviera Maya. If the tourist destination pays about two million euros a year more variable to appear on the front of the shirt, among other assets, the technology company of blockchain will occupy the next lower level.
Although the figures of the agreement have not transpired, Espanyol will receive from Bitci a fixed payment which, according to the scale of the sponsorship, will stand at 500,000 euros for the third level and 2 million euros for the first. To this fixed part will be added an amount that will vary depending on the volume of transactions that are made in the coming years with the fan tokens bearing the name of the club. “We are convinced that this is the beginning of a lasting relationship and that it will bear fruit in positive results for both parties,” explained the club’s general manager, José María Durán Farré.
‘Fan tokens’ come into football
Despite being a fairly recent business, the sponsorship of a cryptocurrency company is a growing phenomenon in the global football industry. Since the beginning of 2020, eight more clubs in the League had already signed similar agreements: Barça, Atlético de Madrid, Valencia and Levante have done so with Socios; Betis, Alava and Celta with Bitci; while Cadiz has opted for Jobchain. Other renowned clubs such as Manchester City, PSG, Juventus, Inter Milan, Roma or teams such as the Spanish, Brazilian and Uruguayan have also had their own for months. fan tokens.
The high media coverage of football around the world makes it the ideal showcase for companies of this type, which seek to advertise among large masses of the public. This is how they make their cryptocurrencies known, which begin to circulate and increase in value. It is estimated that, at present, the fan tokens they move approximately 460 million euros worldwide. A figure that, according to the CEO of Socios.com, Alexandre Dreyfus, will rise to 8.4 billion in the coming years. An economic return that is difficult to match for other economic sectors in this time frame.
Espanyol gives up its image, but makes it clear that in no case the fan tokens they are associated with the ownership of the company. “It’s a virtual title that tells you that you are part of a community and that maybe at some point it has a certain value,” Espanyol sources told ARA. The club, apart from putting its name and image, will offer small benefits to the owners of the fan tokens that bear his name, such as experiences and access to the Hospitality area of the RCDE Stadium. The clubs that already have fan tokens they offer some experiences such as participating in exclusive product raffles or being able to decide on small-scale club issues, among others. Barça, for example, put the design of masks to a vote.
A risky volatile investment
Espanyol warns that the benefits associated with the club are anecdotal, and emphasize that, in order to make real decisions or to be able to obtain important privileges, it is preferable to become a shareholder or member of the club. “It is a product that has a speculative component and that is basically designed for professionals who know that they can make money, but also lose it. They are more of an investment method than a purely sentimental link to a club “, they warn from the white-and-blue entity.
Their starting price is usually quite low, as evidenced by the starting prices that currently have fan tokens of Celta (10 cents) or MotoGP (30 cents). The fan tokens they are an investment that, from what has been seen with the football clubs that already use them, is a very volatile element that can vary depending on how long each entity lives.
A clear example is the signing of Messi by PSG. When Barça announced that the Argentine would not follow Barça, the fan tokens of the Parisian ensemble they were worth $ 22. Its price skyrocketed to 60 with the arrival of the Argentine, but a month later has fallen again to 29.
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