Original article: "World Cup, a global stage targeted by Web3"
Author: Tangyuan
The World Cup, this quadrennial sports feast, is attracting the attention of the world, whether you are a fan or not. Watching the World Cup, it is not difficult to find that various Web3 elements covering blockchain and Crypto are appearing in various ways inside and outside the stadium.
Banner ads for crypto asset trading platform Crypto.com appeared on the pitch; Adidas showed off its NFT digital brand image Indigo Hertz in its World Cup ads; Budweiser and FIFA (International Football Federation) collaborated to launch the real-time scoreboard NFT "Budverse x FIFAWorldCup Live Scoreboard"; Qatar World Cup partner Visa launched an NFT collection commemorating the classic goal clips of five stars including Michael Owen in the World Cup...
In addition to manufacturer brands, participating stars are using NFT to market their personal brands. Portuguese football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo announced a partnership with Binance to release an NFT series that records important moments in Ronaldo's life; Brazilian star Neymar will launch the NFT series "Beastmode Metaverse x Neymar Jr" during the World Cup; Argentine star Neymar announced an investment in the football blockchain game Sorare and served as a brand ambassador...
Traditional brands use Crypto to show that they have kept up with the new trend, while Crypto brands hope to achieve global exposure through the World Cup. So, in addition to marketing, what other Web3 applications are active during the World Cup?
Fan token hype cools down
According to the crypto asset data platform CoinGecko, on the opening day of the Carl World Cup, the total market value of fan tokens in the football field fell by more than 35%, currently at $280 million. As of November 27, the football sector of fan tokens has fallen to varying degrees. Among them, the Portuguese national team token POR has fallen by 40.3% in the past 7 days, reporting $3.7; the Argentine Football Association token ARG has fallen by 50.5% in the past 7 days, fluctuating around $4.2; the Brazilian national football team token BFT has fallen by 58.6% in the past 7 days, reporting $0.43... and the underlying token CHZ of Chiliz, the protocol for issuing fan tokens, has fallen by 29.7% in the past 7 days, hovering around $0.17.
Fan Token Sector Trends
The surge in the football sector of fan tokens did not occur during the World Cup, but instead occurred a month before the start of the tournament, when a large number of fan tokens soared in price, exposing the characteristics of hype.
Fan Token is a cryptographic asset, usually issued by stars or organizations with IP attributes using blockchain networks or protocols. It is one of the products of the fan economy, and its functions generally include providing exclusive benefits to fans. Specifically in the field of football, some clubs, teams or players issue tokens to fans, raising funds while connecting with fans and giving token holders some rights, such as participating in meet-and-greets, voting on some club affairs, etc.
In the past, in the fan economy, whether it was a team or a band, the economic relationship with their fans was mainly based on consumption, such as buying tickets to watch games or performances, and authorized peripheral products. After the emergence of blockchain and encrypted assets, some IP entities tried to use tokens issued on the public chain network to expand capital operation space, reduce intermediaries, break the regional restrictions of fans, and change the payment method of IP consumer goods.
Of course, there are also some IP entities that grant rights and interests to Token holders, but in practice, fans have very limited decision-making power over the entity, which has brought growth to the entity's economic benefits. Teams or clubs that issue fan tokens directly use tokens to obtain cash from fans. In addition to raising funds, they bypass brand agents and allow external parties to directly use tokens to complete brand consumption, such as using fan tokens to exchange for game broadcasting rights and naming rights, and using fan tokens to purchase peripheral products and services launched by the club, etc.
According to data from the fan token application Socios, various fan tokens generated $200 million in revenue for partner clubs in 2021. At present, Socios has issued more than 50 fan tokens, including the Argentine Football Association token ARG, a national team-attributed fan token, as well as Manchester City fan token CITY, Barcelona fan token BAR and other fan tokens of world-renowned football clubs. Through fan tokens, fans of Paris Saint-Germain can get a VIP experience provided by the club; Manchester City fans can vote for which player to hang their photo at Wembley Stadium, and Inter Milan fans voted for the goal celebration song.
Socios is built on the Chiliz public chain, a blockchain infrastructure designed specifically for the sports and entertainment industries, and provides customized fan token issuance, trading and operation services. It can be seen that from the underlying network to application products, the fan economy already has a set of Web3 infrastructure that can be implemented.
However, judging from the trading market during the World Cup, the hype attribute of fan tokens is still prominent. When speculation acts on the market, fans holding tokens may suffer economic losses, affecting fans' holding experience.
Football NFT focuses on collection attributes
When fan tokens exposed their speculative properties during the World Cup, non-fungible crypto assets NFTs attempted to win over fans with their collectible properties and highlight the commemorative significance of the World Cup. Some platforms are launching such NFTs.
FIFA+Collect, the official NFT platform of FIFA
FIFA+Collect is an NFT collection platform launched by the International Football Federation on the blockchain Algorand network. The platform was officially launched in September this year, and plans to record the highlights of this World Cup and historical moments in other football matches on NFTs for football fans to purchase, collect, trade, and transfer.
"FIFA+" is a digital video playback platform launched by FIFA in April this year, providing football match information, news, interactive games and other content from all over the world. In September, the launch of FIFA+Collect means that this platform has begun to make NFT a new medium to connect with the audience. Register a FIFA+ account, select your favorite NFT, and you can buy it with legal currencies such as US dollars and British pounds.
As of November 25, FIFA+Collect has issued four NFT series - Genesis, FIFA Archives, FIFA Archives 2, and South American Flair. These NFTs are presented in the form of videos, recording the wonderful moments in football history, players' iconic actions, and other scenes, such as the greatest goals, saves, and holding high trophies, etc. Holders will collect these moments in the form of NFTs.
Football video NFT platform RealFevr
During the World Cup, video NFTs on RealFevr also sold well, with over 145,000 sold so far.
RealFevr was originally a football game company founded in 2015. Its fantasy league game (RealFevr Fantasy) has been downloaded more than 2 million times. In 2021, the company officially entered the Web3 track, hoping to reconstruct the business model of the sports market with the help of blockchain technology, and quickly launched a football video NFT market on the blockchain network BNB Chain.
RealFevr has issued video NFTs that record the wonderful moments of football stars for fans to collect or trade. In order to obtain the copyright of the video, the platform has established IP partnerships with the Portuguese Football Super League, the Portuguese Football Association, Torino Football Club, etc.
If FIFA+Collect's NFT focuses on historic moments on the field, the commercialized RealFevr captures the essence of IP and uses the stars' wonderful moments as the core content of NFT.
NFT is just the first step. As a gaming company, RealFevr plans to launch the “Play to Earn” game FEVR Battle Arena, integrating the already issued NFTs into the game, allowing users to form teams and compete with each other using the NFTs of star players in their hands to obtain rewards and income, highlighting the “play to earn” feature of Web3 games.
FIFA enters the metaverse through the World Cup
In addition to crypto assets, the Metaverse is also serving as a window to the World Cup, showing their respective charms. It is worth noting that FIFA has also begun to enter the Metaverse, with games and social networking as the bridge. The official website shows that FIFA has authorized the launch of four Web3 applications covering games and social networking, namely Upland Metaverse Football Showroom, AI League Metaverse Football Battle Game, Card Game Matchday and Phygtl's fan social section.
FIFA licensed games
Upland's Lusail Raceway Virtual Showroom
Upland is a metaverse game that operates virtual real estate, and the gameplay is similar to Monopoly. The buildings in the game are mapped 1:1 by real cities. Players buy land, build houses, sell or rent houses through strategies. Land and buildings are NFTs.
During the World Cup, Upland collaborated with FIFA to replicate the metaverse space of the Lusail Stadium in Qatar, showcasing brand villages and stores in partnership with FIFA. Players can enter the space to purchase football-related digital products and decorate the buildings they build in Upland.
AILeague Metaverse Football Game
AILeague is a 4-on-4 football game. The virtual players in the game are NFT assets with different 3D images and outfits. Players use their own NFT players to build a team, use AI technology to control their own characters (coaches or club managers), command players to fight or manage the team, and improve the abilities of the player characters by training players. In addition, players can also predict the scores of World Cup events on the AI League platform, win points, and then unlock original costumes with World Cup elements for the players.
Altered State Machine (ASM) is the development team of the AI League game. They are trying to create a metaverse platform driven by artificial intelligence (AI). They hope to use machine learning to explore the possibilities of virtual images in the metaverse, such as implanting AI brains into NFT-based virtual images to make these "people" in the metaverse intelligent.
Football Card Game Match Day
MatchDay is a football card game built on the blockchain network Solana. It casts player cards into NFTs that players can purchase and collect. It supports players to form clubs with these NFT player cards. Players become "club managers", operate teams, participate in competitions set by the platform, and receive NFTs or other crypto asset rewards.
Recently, Match Day launched NFTs of player cards participating in the Qatar World Cup. In addition to allowing players to purchase and participate in daily matches, the platform launched a World Cup score prediction game. Players who win the prediction can earn points, and the players with the highest points will be eligible for prizes. Currently, MatchDay will give some player card NFTs to newly registered players so that new players can participate in the game for free.
Phygtl, a social platform for fans
Phygtl is a metaverse social platform that aims to enable traditional consumers to experience the metaverse with the help of AR and Web3 technologies and become ecosystem builders. During the World Cup, Phygtl and FIFA cooperated to launch a fan interaction center (page) in the form of a digital Golden Ball Award.
The digital NFT of the Ballon d'Or will be jointly created by fans. The NFT is composed of various fragments. Fans can cast their own photos, videos, and creative works related to the World Cup into NFTs to form one of the fragments of this award, upload it to Phygtl's World Cup page, and finally become a digital NFT of the Ballon d'Or created by users. Taking the World Cup as an opportunity, Phygtl hopes to enrich the creativity of NFTs and show the global connection of Web3.