Chiliz has bought nearly a quarter FC Barcelona’s Barca Studios. This will allow the club to develop better NFT, metaverse and other projects. FC Barcelona, Europe’s most famous football club, announced a multimillion-euro partnership with Socios.com. Socios.com is a blockchain-based platform for sports fan engagement.
Chiliz, Socios.com’s technology provider and owner, will invest EUR100m ($102 Million) in Barca Studios to buy nearly a quarter. Barca Studios manages the club’s audiovisual productions.
This investment follows Socios.com’s collaboration with FC Barcelona in February 2020, when they launched FC Barcelona’s “fan token”, called BAR.
According to a press release by Socios.com, this investment will allow the club to build better FFT, and metaverse projects while allowing it to improve its approach to engaging fans and building community through digital assets.
This partnership will allow for BAR tokens to be used in ways that go beyond Socios.com.
Alexandre Dreyfus CEO of Chiliz and Socios.com said, “We are passionately about the role technology can play building communities that bring fans closer together to their teams.” “Barca Studios now has the ability to leverage our technology, expertise and global scale.
Soon after Socios.com announced the deal, FC Barcelona confirmed it on Twitter. The club stated that the deal will allow them to advance their “audiovisual, Blockchain, NFT, and Web.3 strategies.”
According to the company which gives access to an earn-to-engage platform, fans have already bought more than EUR39 million worth of BAR tokens at Socios.com. You can earn VIP tickets, merchandise and other benefits by joining the community.
In August of last year, the club’s president, Joan Laporta, disclosed that FC Barcelona was EUR1.3 billion ($1.34 million) in debt, leading the team to let go of Star player Lionel Messi was let go by the club because they couldn’t afford to keep him. They also had to look for funding.
It obtained a EUR595million ($611 million), loan from Goldman Sachs in that month, and signed a new sponsorship agreement with Spotify in March.
Web3 companies have found that the world of sports is a great place to promote their blockchain-based products and find favorable deals. According to a poll, sports enthusiasts are twice likely to have NFTs or cryptocurrency. Manchester City F.C. was also a top choice. OKX has been added as training tool partner by cryptocurrency platform OKX.
Socios.com was founded in 2018 and has established partnerships in over 100 sports organizations across many countries. These include 20 NBA teams and 13 NFL clubs, as well as individuals fighting in the UFC.
