What are Fan Tokens?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Bababam** (1:03)
What are Fan Tokens? Thanks for asking.
Even if you're not a football fan, you can't have missed the news of Lionel Messi's recent transfer to Paris Saint Germain in mid-August. But you may not have heard details of the star's 30 million euro sign-on package at PSG, a significant proportion of which was paid in the club's fan token cryptocurrency. The move led to a spike in PSG trading, with the token value more than doubling from one week to the next. Where can you buy fan tokens and what's the point?
They're available through the socios.com platform, which was founded by French entrepreneur Alexandre Dreyfus in 2018 It takes its name from the Spanish word for member and is reminiscent of club ownership schemes run by the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid. Anyone can buy fan tokens at any time, but the value is subject to fluctuations like any crypto currency. That means there's an element of risk and you should only invest as much as you can afford to lose. The benefit for fans is that they can participate in the life of their club and strengthen their feeling of belonging, whether they live down the road from the stadium or on the other side of the world. They can regularly vote in polls, for example, may receive reduced price merchandising and be entered into draws to meet star players or win VIP match tickets. Oh yeah? What kind of polls then? It could be to name a pitch at the club's training ground, like Leeds United's first fan token poll, which was set up last week. Other possibilities could be deciding opposition for a friendly match, or the music which plays on stadium loudspeakers when the home team scores a goal.
But some supporters groups aren't convinced. They feel clubs are seeking to extract further money from fans who already shell out significant amounts following their team. West Ham United recently pulled out of a planned deal with socios following support or opposition. Why do football clubs need more money anyway? Believe it or not, some of the world's richest clubs aren't actually in the best financial situation. Many have enormous debts, like Barcelona for example, who simply needed to get Messi off their wage bill. Indeed, most clubs lost out on a full year's worth of match day revenues due to COVID-19 restrictions. The idea of fan tokens is one way of diversifying their sources of income.
The trend has mostly caught on in football so far, with European giants like Manchester City, Juventus and AC Milan on board, in addition to PSG. But there's huge room for growth in other sports, particularly in the USA. So do fan tokens offer a new unique form of engagement? Or are they just another way to exploit supporters' loyalty? The jury may still be out, but the numbers suggest the phenomenon is set to grow exponentially. From January to July 2021 alone, Socios increased its number of partners from 20 to 48
There you have it. Now you know what fan tokens are.

**Bababam** (4:05)
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