Roma Joins Blockchain Revolution With Socios.com
Fan engagement platform Socios.com has expanded its football portfolio by striking a deal with Serie A’s AS Roma, which has become the latest major club to embrace innovative blockchain-based technology.
Under the agreement, the platform’s Chiliz ($CHZ) utility token has become the club’s official cryptocurrency as part of a fan engagement model inspired by the ‘socios’ membership structure utilised by the likes of Spanish LaLiga giant FC Barcelona.
The AS Roma Fan Tokens will give fans digital assets to vote in certain club-delegated decisions. From this autumn, the fans will be able to vote for the name of a club facility, make decisions over warm-up activities at Stadio Olimpico and decide which player will feature in a live Twitter Q&A, with more poll topics set to be announced in due course.
The more fans vote and interact with the club via the Socios.com app, the more rewards they can earn, competing for special experiences and gaining access to exclusive merchandise, games and other offers.
The Fan Tokens will be tradeable against Socios.com’s native token, $CHZ, which is now listed on BitMax and KuCoin, as well as Binance DEX – Binance’s decentralised exchange.
The AS Roma Fan Token will be priced at €2 and will be available exclusively through Socios.com from the autumn. Fan Tokens can also be earned by interacting with the club via the app or ‘hunted’ for free through the app’s augmented-reality geolocation feature, Token Hunt.
Roma is the second major Serie A club to sign up to the initiative following Juventus’ deal with Socios.com last September. Earlier in the same month, French Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain became the first club to seal a partnership with the platform.
Since then, Socios.com has signed up West Ham United as its first partner from the Premier League, as well as esports team OG. Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO and Founder of Socios.com, said that “many more teams” will be announced soon, covering “new territories and sports”.
Dreyfus added: “This partnership gives us the opportunity to educate a huge audience of mainstream consumers to the benefits of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, across Europe as well as Asia and Latin America. If you add up all the fan bases of our current partners, we’re already looking at a potential audience of hundreds of millions of sports fans and users for both $CHZ and Socios.com.”
Francesco Calvo, AS Roma’s Chief Revenue Officer, said: “AS Roma, as a club, has a duty to always be very attentive and proactive towards new technologies and innovation. Thanks to Socios.com’s blockchain platform, we can guarantee new opportunities to our fan base around the world, giving them the possibility to interact in an innovative way with their favourite team.”
The expansion of Socios.com reflects a growing trend amongst European football clubs, which are increasingly exploring blockchain-based technology in order to ramp up fan engagement opportunities.
Last year, Liverpool FC sealed a partnership with Forex trading platform TigerWit, while online investment platform eToro announced a seven-club partnership – the first to be paid in Bitcoin – with Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, Leicester City, Crystal Palace, Southampton, Cardiff City and Brighton & Hove Albion.
