FIFA World Cup Embraces New Opportunities With Web3

The World Cup, held once every four years, is the top stream of human organization and is the most popular event in the world. During World Cup matches, hundreds of millions of fans go crazy, and all World Cup-related topics become the focus of the conversation.

Football Superstar plans to release NFT on the eve of the World Cup

Brazilian football superstar Neymar announced that he will release his first NFT series during the World Cup, now open for casting on NFTSTAR. According to NFTSTAR, the full title of the upcoming NFT series is “Beastmode Metaverse × Neymar Jr..”

Neymar is the current captain of the five-star Brazil men’s national football team, and Brazil is the favorite to win this year’s World Cup, so the market eagerly awaits the Neymar-issued NFT.

Web3 is gaining traction, as are the concepts of NFT and fan tokens.

Along with NFT, fan tokens, and various token economies, the 2022 Qatar World Cup features more blockchain-based Web3 eco-events than ever before, so perhaps we can call this World Cup the first year of the Web3 World Cup. The concept of Web3 was proposed in 2014 by Gavin Wood, co-founder of EtherChip, and Web3 gained immense popularity in 2021.

Web3 is rapidly developing and beginning to integrate into our lives, thanks to the acceptance and attention of large technology companies, investment firms, and many blockchain enthusiast players.

Because of NFT’s unique and immutable code stored on the blockchain and alphanumeric code strings that can be linked to corresponding digital or physical assets, casters can create NFT scarcity through specific casting conditions. This feature naturally corresponds perfectly with the shortage of top sports stars.

Exclusive fan benefits for NFT holders

In addition to the Neymar-issued mentioned NFTs whose value will increase with Neymar’s and even Brazil’s World Cup performance, holders of the NFT can also attend exclusive Neymar meet-and-greets, interact directly with Neymar and have access to limited edition signed collectibles, which could be priceless for Neymar fans.

In fact, around the group of NFT and sports fans, the sports world has played the NFT very well, like Neymar himself is the holder of BAYC NFT. Sorare, a blockchain game built on Ethereum, is a more exciting platform for football fans to play against other users by purchasing or acquiring NFTs based on real-life athletes. The value of these players’ NFT cards also depends on the performance and potential of the player.

The most successful sports category NFT - NBA TOP SHOT

The NBA, which is highly commercial, established an NFT marketplace for NBA Top Shots back in 2020 where fans can buy, sell, and trade basketball video clips on a platform known as NBA Best Moments, each of which showcases a different highlight of the basketball game.

NBA Top Shot, using web3 technology, provides consumers with the same access to card NFTs documenting NBA player highlights as baseball cards, setting incredible sales records. This NBA-owned NFT company has a market cap of more than $2 billion. In April 2021, LeBron James’ dunking film NFT was sold for more than $200,000, setting a record for the project’s transactions.

Interestingly, data show that on the NBA’s NFT platform, of those who can sell six-figure sales orders, 90% have no resale records, which shows that these NFT purchase holders are aware of the value of these NFT collections and not just of short-term speculation market.

Football NFT and fan tokens are becoming more popular as the World Cup approaches.

Because of its uniqueness, the general audience of NFT is still relatively small. In contrast, Football fan tokens are a very interesting derivation of Web3 and Football in the last two years, and the relevance of the World Cup is much greater.

As we all know, national teams compete in the World Cup, and almost all professional players are in their clubs when there is no national team match day, so for most players, the club is the subject with a more substantial presence.

The club influences the players’ daily behavior, competitive performance, and commercial activities, so discussing Football is inextricably linked to the club.

Chiliz, built around the Football Club, is the platform that currently signs and issues fan tokens in the Web3 industry.

Chiliz has deployed several Football clubs to assist them in issuing fan tokens

Chiliz is a blockchain financial services company specializing in sports and entertainment. Its primary focus is fan-based operations to improve fan engagement in related sports and entertainment industries. It leverages the Socios community to connect fans and generate a significant network effect.

Chiliz became the scale leader of the Web3 sports community after only a few years of operation, having signed 64 Football clubs or national team-related teams, including Argentina, another favorite to win the championship this year. Chiliz’s layout can be said to have taken in all the early clubs interested in blockchain.

For Web2 football fans and Web3 Blockchain enthusiasts

Chiliz’s deployment and operation are very sincere. Chiliz is not only for web3 blockchain fans and professional hardcore fans but also for the most extensive number of ordinary fans, which is a large audience.

Chiliz has created a whole community of Socios, built its chain based on blockchain technology, used the token $CHZ as the platform’s native pass, and issued fan tokens with partner famous clubs and sports brands, allowing Fan token holders to participate in the voting decisions of the relevant clubs and receive appropriate rewards and recognition from the clubs, all of which are listed on the platform. All of this is issued on the Chiliz blockchain-based platform, and Chiliz blockchain smart contracts handle all online voting.

Chiliz brings more value to clubs and fans through a token economy.

In some ways, the Chiliz model highlights the importance of the blockchain token economy. Chiliz signs up clubs and issues corresponding fan tokens, fans buy and hold the club tokens on the platform out of love and faith, and money flows into Chiliz and the affiliated clubs. The Chiliz platform increases the user base, and clubs develop the Web3 digital market and generate significant revenue. Fans enrich their digital entertainment experience and interact with their favorite clubs and players.

Of course, Chiliz had gone to great lengths to sign up and even tie up clubs, most notably in the summer of 2022 when Barcelona, the famous Football club, suffered a financial crisis and responded by selling 24.5% of Barcelona’s audio-visual studio to Socios for a financial backing of 100 million euros.

What factors should be considered before purchasing fan tokens?

Users can purchase fan tokens for their club or national team on the Chiliz or Gate.io exchanges. The trend of fan tokens for different clubs is related to the team’s recent performance and exposure. Unfortunately, only Argentina and Italy have issued fan tokens among the national teams closest to the World Cup, and Italy will not compete in the Qatar World Cup for athletic reasons.

Fan tokens fluctuate due to various factors, so investors should proceed cautiously.

Of course, for some Football fans, the logic behind the fan token rise and fall may be slightly different than expected, as it does not directly consider the team’s global influence or the strength of the team lineup. Because the token market value is most directly derived from the buying and selling relationship in the market, some teams have a stronger relationship tied to the exchange platform. There may be some financial support or trade advantage, causing specific lesser-known club fan tokens to move better than expected.

Many Football fan tokens, such as SANTOS, PORTO, and LAZIO, are available on the Gate.io exchange and can be found in the spot trading interface.

Decentralized gaming market based on blockchain with enormous growth potential

The betting industry is much larger than the World Cup. Betting is not an unfamiliar face to the World Cup or the sports industry. The betting industry based on blockchain cryptocurrency technology, built on decentralized underlying logic, has enormous growth potential.

The decentralized betting exchange allows participants to trade with one another by matching opposing bets (i.e., peer-to-peer), removing the need for a “bookmaker” as in sports betting.

Based on the property of prediction, users can not only participate in various prediction betting on the next World Cup matches, not limited to the World Cup winner and a certain score, but also on various future event predictions such as the GDP growth rate of the United States this year or the probability of Trump running for president in the next election.

For example, Polymarket, a Polygon-based decentralized trading platform, claims to use blockchain technology and the power of the free market to bet on users’ predictions of future events. It is currently one of the prediction market’s more liquid and referenced platforms.

Betswap, on the other hand, is a sports betting-focused decentralized trading platform. Peer-to-peer blockchain technology is used. Users can become bettors or bookmakers on the platform and set their odds, making event predictions more exciting and flexible.

Similarly, AverExchange, BetDexLab, and others are betting gaming platforms built on different public chains with similar operations and models, demonstrating that the betting industry’s competition is also more severe under Web3.

Conclusion

This year’s World Cup is an intriguing new attempt at blockchain, NFT, fan tokens, and other innovative applications centered on Football IP. It demonstrates a richer form than previously, both for fans and clubs.

In this World Cup, we will see many scenarios and interactive ways of integrating Web3 applications, and this wave will encourage more people to enter this innovative Web3 world.