4 Fan Token Facts To Know in 2024

Fan tokens are one of the innovations made possible by blockchain technologies. Sports clubs such as soccer and basketball clubs have been struggling with revenue growth over the last few years. Fan tokens can help accelerate revenue growth for sports clubs both directly through token sales and indirectly through cross-selling merchandise and tickets. Artists are also able to issue special NFTs for their fans, increasing their engagement with their fanbase. 

What are fan tokens?

Fan tokens are fungible crypto tokens issued by sports clubs. Fungible tokens are not unique; they all have the same characteristics. For example, Bitcoin is a fungible token as one bitcoin is no different from any other Bitcoin. 

Proceeds of fan token sales go to the club and in return, the club provides utility to the token holders. This allows clubs to monetize fans’ interest in their club while fans support the club and enjoy the benefits by purchasing tokens. Utilities provided by different clubs include:

Voting rights

• Juventus fan token holders voted on the goal celebration anthem.
• Barcelona fan token holders voted on the artwork to be placed inside the team locker room.
• Navi’s banner for the Dota 2 professional league was chosen by fan token holders.

Discounts

• S.S.Lazio offered VIP tickets at a discount for its token holders. 

Who uses fan tokens?

Fan tokens are used in different types of sports. It includes: 

Soccer 

The most issued fan tokens both in terms of number and money raised are from soccer clubs. For example, AC Milan and FC Arsenal were able to raise $6 million and $5.5 million, respectively, from their fan token offering. Some of the most famous soccer teams with fan tokens include:

• FC Barcelona 
• Inter Milan 
• Manchester City 
• Paris Saint Germain

Formula 1

Formula 1 has been growing in popularity over the last few years and last year it recorded 108 million viewers for its final race, the highest figure to date. Popular teams such as Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG Petronas have yet to adopt fan tokens, but some teams have already issued fan tokens such as : 

• Alfa Romeo F1
• Alpine F1 
• Aston Martin Cognizant F1

E-sport 

E-sport viewership is expected to grow by 8% CAGR and reach 640.8 million by 2024. Some of the most famous e-sport teams that have issued fan tokens are:

• Alliance
• Natus Vincere (Navi)
• OG

Others

Other types of sports have started to adopt fan tokens to different extent such as:

• Mixed martial arts
• Tennis
• Cricket

Where can you purchase fan tokens? 

Fan tokens are purchasable from: 

Socio

Most fan tokens are traded on the Socio website which is built on the Chiliz blockchain. Chiliz blockchain was designed from the beginning with the idea of providing a place for fans’ engagement with teams and teams monetizing this engagement. The Chiliz blockchain has its own native currency CHZ which is required for trading fan tokens on Socio. CHZ operates both on the Ethereum blockchain and Binance smart chain. They are purchasable from exchanges such as Binance, Kraken, and Coinbase.

Binance

Binance has entered the fan token market by signing exclusive fan token offerings on its platform. They run on the Binance smart chain blockchain network. Currently, they have only 4 team fan tokens and they are purchasable using credit cards and cryptocurrencies. An interesting benefit of Binance fan tokens is that it gives access to a limited NFTs collection to its owners. 

Superfandom

Superfandom allows creators and artists to issue NFTs for their fans. These NFTs allow holders benefits such as Zoom calls or dining with the artist. Superfandom NFTs are secured by Bitcoin as it runs on the Stacks blockchain. 

How are fan tokens performing?

Fan tokens prices have dropped across the board in 2022 in line with the drop in most of the NFT market.

Figure 1. Year-to-date performance of top 10 fan tokens*

Source: CoinMarketCap

* Based on the market cap and year-to-date performance as of 24/05/2022. The Alpine F1 token has been removed because it was issued in February 2022 and therefore had a limited track record. 

Further reading 

• Top NFT use cases
• Blockchain case studies from different industries