Benfica, Portugal’s most decored football club, has joined the crypto craze and signed a deal with Socios.
They become the country’s first club to sign a deal with the blockchain-powered fan engagement firm to launch a fan token, the club announced on Tuesday.
“We have been paying very close attention to Digital Assets,” SL Benfica CEO Domingos Soares de Oliveira said in a statement issued by Socios.com.
“It’s a market which has been influential in our industry of late. Benfica is constantly focused on searching for and delivering a positive experience to our fanbase. We are delighted to be partnering with Socios”
Fan tokens happen to be a new type of cryptocurrency that allows the holders to vote on minor decisions related to their clubs such as the warmup songs or the colors of the team bus.
They are seen by clubs as sources of generating new avenues for income.
Socios which already provides such tokens for Manchester City, Barcelona, Paris St Germain, and other top clubs, has now added Benfica to the list.
According to them, they generated nearly $200 million for their partner clubs in 2021.
Like bitcoin and other digital currencies, fan tokens can be traded on exchanges. They also share with other cryptocurrencies a tendency for wild price swings.
Lionel Messi also signed an agreement worth more than $20 million in March with the website to promote Socios.com after the two-year contract he signed with PSG in August 2021 included some of the French club’s cryptocurrency fan tokens in a “welcome package”.
The crypto world is backed by other athletes such as NFL quarterback Tom Brady and NBA star LeBron James.
Messi’s deal was just another part of a growing wave of tie-ups between crypto firms and soccer.
Benfica presented its worst financial results of the past 11 years for the 2020-21 season, with losses of 17.4 million euros due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The return of fans to the stadiums has not helped stem the issue with the club announcing further losses of 31.7 million euros in the first half of the 2021-22 season.
Benfica will be hoping their monetary fortunes start to change after their new partnership with Socios.
