Comprehensive Analysis of Fan Economy Leader Chiliz: The First Scalable Sports Token Rewards Platform
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Comprehensive Analysis of Fan Economy Leader Chiliz: The First Scalable Sports Token Rewards Platform
The emergence of Chiliz as a new fan economy model has brought greater possibilities and innovation to the sports industry and the future of fan economies.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Lucky, Core Contributor of Biteye
On October 4, English football club Tottenham Hotspur announced a partnership with Chiliz to launch the fan token $SPURS. Members and season ticket holders of Tottenham Hotspur will receive fan tokens for free. Tottenham Hotspur is the first Premier League team to enter Web3 in two years.
Tottenham Hotspur, whose average player value reaches €8.81 million per player, has made a significant addition to Chiliz's ecosystem through this collaboration. This article provides a detailed analysis of Chiliz, a pioneer at the forefront of fan economy.
Introduction to Chiliz
Founded in 2018 by Alexandre Dreyfus, who has extensive experience in the internet industry, Chiliz started by establishing deep collaborations with numerous football clubs. It is the first scalable sports token rewards platform and sports crypto asset trading platform.
According to Rootdata, Chiliz raised funds in 2018, with a total fundraising amount of $65 million. Investors include major crypto funds such as Binance, OKEX, and FBG Capital.
Chiliz primarily serves the sports and entertainment industries, offering customized fan engagement designs and monetization solutions for sports organizations. It has already partnered with world-famous teams including Barcelona, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, among others, to jointly launch fan tokens.
Through the FTO (Fan Token Offering) model, users can purchase team-specific tokens on Socios.com, developed by Chiliz. Clubs use smart contracts to manage token holder privileges, covering everything from jersey design to daily governance voting.
Besides football teams, partners also include Formula 1 teams, esports clubs, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Currently, there are 82 fan tokens within the Chiliz ecosystem, with over 150 sports partners.
Introduction to Fan Tokens
Among all industries, sports stands out for having one of the most cohesive and largest fan bases. Within sports, football—being the world’s most popular sport—commands attention from over 3 billion people globally, with fans spending heavily.
According to Football Benchmark data, during the 19/20 season, fans of the Premier League alone spent £1.3 billion attending matches and supporting their teams. Clearly, the fan economy has long been a mature multi-billion-dollar industry.
The concept of fan tokens originates from SocialFi and represents a type of social token backed by individuals, teams, brands, or communities. Holders gain exclusive rights such as access to special events, interactions, and voting power. As community consensus grows, token prices may rise, delivering real returns to token-holding communities.
By tokenizing individuals, consumers can directly participate in an individual’s future performance and earnings, making benefit distribution more equitable.
Thus, under the Web3 model, key participants in the fan economy are fans, celebrities, and platforms:
- Fans act as both consumers and investors, purchasing tokens and engaging interactively to profit from price fluctuations;
- Celebrities serve as the underlying asset behind the tokens, with token prices fluctuating based on their achievements;
- Platforms function as issuers, helping celebrities manage fan communities and activities while earning fees and token-based dividends.
Within the Chiliz ecosystem, fan tokens are cryptocurrencies designed to provide membership benefits to fans of teams, bands, and other groups—such as access to exclusive content, prizes, viewing experiences, and voting rights on club decisions.
By launching fan tokens, clubs can strengthen fan loyalty ("fan retention"), enhancing interaction between stars and fans, thereby deepening fan allegiance and bridging the gap between them. These activities and rewards were difficult to implement before the advent of fan tokens. Additionally, various utility explorations exist for these fan tokens—for example, using them to vote on slogans for captain’s armbands, gaining unique experiences like watching games from VIP boxes, accessing backstage areas of stadiums, or receiving special discounts on club merchandise.
For instance, Inter Milan fan token holders voted to select the club's first new goal celebration song in eight years, participated in choosing the official team bus, and voted on jersey designs.
Socios.com: A Tool Towards Fan Clubs
What Is Socios?
In 2019, Chiliz launched Socios.com—a consumer-facing application powered by the Chiliz Chain. Socios is a fan engagement and rewards app that allows fans to interact with their favorite teams and clubs through digital assets known as fan tokens.
Fans can exchange $CHZ for fan tokens of their preferred teams, obtain fan tokens, participate in team-related polls, and enjoy discounted merchandise purchases. Through Socios.com and fan tokens, supporters can take part in day-to-day decision-making processes of their football clubs by casting votes to express opinions.
Key features of Socios include:
1) Issuing fan tokens and determining holder benefits: Socios includes a Fan Token Offering (FTO) launchpad enabling clubs to easily issue and distribute fan tokens. Additionally, fan tokens feature a burn mechanism that increases scarcity—and thus value—for sports teams. Benefits for token holders vary by team, with each team deciding which perks its token holders receive.
2) Trading: Fans can directly purchase $CHZ using credit cards and then buy and trade team fan tokens within Socios using $CHZ;
3) Voting: Fan token holders have the ability to influence decisions related to their supported clubs. Fans can directly participate in their favorite team’s decision-making process via Socios. For example, Arsenal FC fans can use the Arsenal Fan Token (AFC) to vote on merchandise designs, in-game banners, pitch naming rights, or goal celebration songs—all while earning rewards and unique experiences. The platform ensures clubs fairly honor fan voting outcomes through smart contracts.
Examples of choices influenced by fan token holders include team bus appearance designs or pattern selections for new kits. For each vote, every fan token holder gets one vote. However, the weight of your vote depends on how many fan tokens you hold. If you own one fan token, your voting power is 1. But if you hold 50 fan tokens, your vote carries 50 times the impact.
4) Earning Loyalty Points: Token holders can also earn points by participating in team polls, games, quizzes, and other activities. As you use the app and accumulate tokens, you earn SSU—the app’s internal loyalty token. These loyalty tokens can be redeemed for team merchandise, tickets, memorabilia, matchday and VIP experiences, meet-and-greet events, and more via the fan rewards program.
5) Token Hunt: An augmented reality game where players can find free tokens hidden within communities.
Socios.com bridges the gap between fans and teams, enabling richer and more diverse connections. Fan tokens allow fans to enjoy membership-like benefits without paying annual or monthly subscription fees. Once acquired, these tokens can be permanently retained without additional costs to maintain privileges.
Currently, popular football clubs with millions of fans—including Arsenal FC (AFC), Atlético Madrid (ATM), FC Barcelona (BAR), Manchester City (CITY), Paris Saint-Germain (PSG)—have partnered with Chiliz to issue fan tokens, operating them through the Socios app.
Tottenham Club
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly known as Spurs, is a football club based in Tottenham, London, England, currently competing in the English Premier League.
Spurs were the first 20th-century team to win both the league title and the FA Cup—the so-called "double." They are one of only three teams to win consecutive FA Cups, and the only club to achieve this feat twice.
In 1963, they won the European Cup Winners' Cup, becoming the first British club to claim a European trophy. Their Twitter account currently boasts 8.8 million followers and consistently ranks among the top 15 in Deloitte’s Football Money League and Forbes’ Soccer Team Valuation List.
Tottenham’s decision to adopt blockchain technology stems from a desire to enhance fan engagement and reward supporters through Web3 fan tokens.
This innovative move is driven by Socios.com, aligning Tottenham Hotspur with other renowned football clubs such as Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Atlético Madrid, and Roma—all of which have adopted blockchain technology to revolutionize fan engagement.
Beyond fan tokens, Spurs will also partner with MatchWornShirt, a platform facilitating auctions of shirts worn by players during matches. Authentication of these auctions on the Chiliz blockchain ensures transparency and trust throughout the process.
Tottenham Hotspur plans to integrate fan tokens into its existing loyalty programs and mobile apps, aiming to deliver enhanced, seamless digital experiences for fans while fostering a stronger sense of community among supporters.
The Spurs fan token is currently an additional benefit within the club’s membership program. All One Hotspur+ members and season ticket holders (aged 18+) will receive five free fan tokens, while One Hotspur / Hotspur Connect members will receive one fan token each.
Club members will receive coupon codes via email, redeemable on Socios.com.
These tokens enable fans to earn points unlocking tailored rewards and experiences such as on-screen messages, VIP tickets, Spurs Store coupons, and virtual meetups. The club has engaged extensively with its Fan Consultative Committee to discuss how Spurs fan token holders will benefit from and participate in rewards offered on Socios.com.
Ryan Norys, Tottenham Hotspur’s Director of Commercial Sales, said: “We’re excited to offer our global fanbase a range of new club-related rewards and experiences. Our fan token builds upon the many benefits already available through our membership program. We’ll be offering free fan tokens to all members and season ticket holders upon launch, partnering with Socios.com to deliver appealing rewards for both domestic and international fans. This collaboration exemplifies how the club seeks to create additional recurring revenue streams to reinvest in our football operations.”
Emma Diskin, Chief Operating Officer at Socios.com, said: “Fans around the world can now gain unique experiences on Socios.com simply by showing support for their club through fan tokens. With this launch, Spurs fans will be able to participate in club-related polls, predictions, and contests, earning points to unlock new rewards and experiences.”
Future Outlook for Chiliz
Chiliz Chain Mainnet
In May 2023, Chiliz officially launched the public mainnet of Chiliz Chain (all previously issued fan tokens have migrated to this mainnet). On August 30, Binance announced support for the Chiliz Chain mainnet. On October 20, Binance confirmed full integration of the Chiliz Chain mainnet.
Chiliz Chain is a Layer 1, EVM-compatible, interoperable ecosystem introducing a system of 11 active Proof-of-Staked-Authority (PoSA) validator nodes responsible for validating transactions and creating a highly secure environment. Approved developers can build projects on it, forming the backbone of Web3 in sports. Validators currently announced include Ankr, Paribu, Meria, and Luganodes.
All transaction fees on Chiliz Chain will be paid using Chiliz’s native token $CHZ, which functions similarly to ETH on Ethereum. Specifically, CHZ can be used to:
1. Pay gas fees to deploy or call smart contracts;
2. Execute cross-chain operations, such as transferring assets between Chiliz Chain and Ethereum;
3. Secure the network via staking or delegation, earning rewards for locking $CHZ on-chain.
Features of Chiliz Chain:
1. Blocks are generated by a limited set of validators;
2. Validators take turns producing blocks using PoSA, similar to Ethereum’s Clique consensus engine;
3. The validator set enters and exits via staking-based governance on the Chiliz Chain;
4. The Parlia consensus engine interacts with a suite of system contracts to manage liveness penalties, reward distribution, and validator set updates.
Currently, Chiliz Chain powers Socios.com and the digital sports ecosystem for fan tokens, enabling clubs to establish direct relationships with global audiences. Data from October shows the ecosystem now has over 2 million wallets and over $4.5 million worth of transactions completed.
Chiliz Chain aims to become the leading blockchain for enterprise-grade sports and entertainment brands, giving any developer interested in exploring the potential of Chiliz fan tokens access to an extensive network of over 150 leading sports IPs. Being EVM-compatible, Chiliz Chain maintains compatibility with Ethereum tools, simplifying development and enabling the creation of a distinctive Web3 sports ecosystem.
Chiliz Ecosystem
On March 1, 2023, Chiliz announced a $50 million accelerator program alongside a global series of hackathons to drive innovation on Chiliz Chain.
This accelerator initiative will be managed through Chiliz Labs—an incubator and accelerator fund valued at $50 million, targeting early-stage sports blockchain projects building on Chiliz Chain.
A series of Web3 sports projects incubated by Chiliz Labs will be unveiled in the coming months. These will include metaverse-based sports, football and football manager games, reward-driven community platforms, social gaming platforms, AI-powered content platforms, 3D digital sports collectibles, and NFT ticketing initiatives.
Current projects in the Chiliz Chain ecosystem include:
1) ONTO Wallet: A well-known decentralized multi-chain platform with over one million users, supporting more than 1,000 dApps across over 60 blockchains, facilitating identity and asset management.
2) Blockasset: A verified athlete NFT and token ecosystem enabling unprecedented connections between fans and athletes through Web3.
3) LiveLike: An audience engagement platform transforming online customers into loyal fans through personalized interactive experiences.
4) FanFest: An SDK for member/token-gated virtual experiences, commercializing decentralized fan communities.
5) Tickie: A comprehensive ticketing and fan engagement solution leveraging Web3 to maximize the potential of every ticket.
6) Legend: Designs and creates unique digital trophies and medals, bringing a modern touch to traditional sports awards via its innovative NFT platform.
7) Abrakadabra Game Technologies: Revolutionizes the gaming industry using patented technology that generates games from real-life videos.
8) TopGoal: Footballcraft, TopGoal’s decentralized football game, will launch on Chiliz.
9) Football AlphaVerse: An AI-driven 3D interactive entertainment platform dedicated to football, clubs, and fans.
Conclusion
As a blockchain focused on sports and entertainment fan economies, Chiliz has partnered with multiple world-renowned football clubs such as Barcelona, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, and Tottenham Hotspur, launching over 82 fan tokens with more than 150 partners. Through the issuance and trading of fan tokens, Chiliz is pioneering new frontiers in the fan economy, uniquely tapping into the vast potential of sports fandom.
Socios.com is a key tool for Chiliz—a fan engagement and rewards application. Fans can use $CHZ on Socios.com to purchase fan tokens of their favorite teams, participate in voting, and enjoy exclusive benefits. Through this platform, fans gain direct influence over their favorite teams, voting on design choices, events, and decisions, maintaining closer interaction with the club.
The emergence of this new fan economy model via Chiliz and Socios.com establishes tighter links among teams, celebrities, and fans, bringing greater possibilities and innovation to the sports industry and the future of fan economies. With the partnership with Tottenham Hotspur and the launch of its mainnet, the continued evolution of Chiliz’s ecosystem warrants long-term attention.
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