Football: Almost every club wants a fan token

Fingertips on his iPhone screen, Driss scrolls through the latest mercato news. This August, his attention is mainly focused on Juventus 🇮🇹. His 'favourite' team has been busy in recent weeks, and is set to complete a number of transfers of highly-rated players. "It's all off to a good start," says the 28-year-old Parisian, who is hoping that French world champion Paul Pogba's new team will have a good season, which could, among other things, drive up the price of the club's fan token.

Because Driss is not just another fan. He's a Juventus Turin fan token holder: the $JUV.

Like him, there are thousands of others who hold tokens from the Italian club. These $JUVs are digital tokens registered on a blockchain. They are not like NFTs, i.e. they are unique, but they give access to a wide range of services: stadium tickets, VIP events, the right to vote on the decoration of the bus or the music played when the players enter the pitch. The more tokens you have, the more influence you have on the outcome of votes.

The first tokens of this kind have been offered since 2019 by the Malta-registered company "Socios", and since then they have developed strongly. As the European leagues resume at the moment, several dozen clubs such as Juventus Turin, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City already have their fan tokens. And other teams around the world are working on their own.

But why are clubs using them? How do they benefit? What are the limits? The Big Whale investigated 🔍

‍