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'Fans are the most mistreated people,' argues Somnia CEO when discussing unpaid digital labor

For decades, sports fans have been treated as audiences rather than participants. At Binance Blockchain Week, executives from sports, gaming, and virtual worlds argued that model is beginning to break – and that technology is giving fans new ways to shape the teams and communities they support.
“I think fan engagement is number one in sports. Fans are the ones who give us support,” said Tristan Thompson, former basketballer and Co-Founder of Basketball.fun, questioning how platforms could better recognize the “talent and education” of fan communities.
Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Chiliz, expanded the theme, pointing out: “99% of sports fans are not in the stadium, city, or even in the country of the team they are supporting.”
“So we created this concept of fan tokens," he said, "which allow fans all over the world, to have a say, to have a piece, not in an equity, traditional way, but a stake in the team they support.”
Ownership beyond the stadium
Herman Narula, Founder and CEO of Somnia and Improbable, argued that online platforms rarely reward the communities that sustain them.
“There are half a billion people right now every month interacting inside virtual worlds," he said. "The issue is they don’t own those worlds.”
“They don’t have any real equity and can’t really build businesses that will ever be valued, like the businesses in the real world that are built on infrastructure,” he added, pointing to the opportunity to unlock new economies built around shared ownership.
Community influence moves online

“Fans especially from the NBA have so much influence,” Thompson said. “I've seen a community people in Cleveland talk about how bad a coach was, and the next day, he actually got fired.”
“So with the community having that much power, it's how can we take that and bring it in the digital era and create a platform for them to really speak and show their true talents,” he added.
Providing fans with meaningful decision-making power remains difficult. Dreyfus described one early experiment that tested the limits of participation.
“In 2020, fans were able to decide what music to use every time the team scored. It was the first time ever a football stadium in the world let fans vote on a blockchain,” he said.
“These kinds of things give courage because you need to convince the teams, not the players, to actually go on-board, giving a voice to the fans, which is very difficult for private citizens, but technology platforms, crypto, allow you to really distribute this kind of power,” he stressed.
Exploitation and recognition
Narula took a more critical view of how fan labor has historically been rewarded, saying fans “are the most exploited people when it comes to capitalism, in terms of the relationship they have with companies they do free labor for.”
Finding ways to convert that unpaid effort into meaningful leverage, Narula said it is unlikely to come from rights holders alone.
He believes that turning community participation into real power “isn't something that the sports IP providers are going to do themselves.”
“That's something that has to be a part of our movement where fans organize and create powerful things,” he said.
Reputation and accountability
The panel also addressed the ongoing reputational challenges facing crypto-based platforms. Dreyfus said skepticism once made partnerships difficult.
He shared how his brand’s crypto background initially made it difficult to secure partnerships with Paris Saint-Germain.
“Of course, the first thing we'd hear eight years ago is we are a scam and that crypto is never going to last,” Dreyfus said. “Eight years later, on the other hand, this industry is legit and licensed.”
Narula argued that ownership also demands responsibility.
“The point of custody, ownership, and choice is that sometimes you can make bad choices, and sometimes your possession can be lost through bad trades,” he said. “I think the question really is: ‘how do we create much more attention and value in terms of reputation in the system?’”
“I think having people who have an anonymous identity launch a company and don’t tell anyone who they are is not cool. That’s just insane,” Narula said. “We as an industry need to really block out those people that don’t want to reveal who they are, don’t want to take responsibility for what they do.”
The discussion took place during The Digital Stadium: Building the Next-Gen Fan Ecosystem panel at Binance Blockchain Week.
This article has been edited and republished on 16/12/25 due to misattribution of quotes in the original.

'Fans are the most mistreated people,' argues Somnia CEO when discussing unpaid digital labor

For decades, sports fans have been treated as audiences rather than participants. At Binance Blockchain Week, executives from sports, gaming, and virtual worlds argued that model is beginning to break – and that technology is giving fans new ways to shape the teams and communities they support.
“I think fan engagement is number one in sports. Fans are the ones who give us support,” said Tristan Thompson, former basketballer and Co-Founder of Basketball.fun, questioning how platforms could better recognize the “talent and education” of fan communities.
Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Chiliz, expanded the theme, pointing out: “99% of sports fans are not in the stadium, city, or even in the country of the team they are supporting.”
“So we created this concept of fan tokens," he said, "which allow fans all over the world, to have a say, to have a piece, not in an equity, traditional way, but a stake in the team they support.”
Ownership beyond the stadium
Herman Narula, Founder and CEO of Somnia and Improbable, argued that online platforms rarely reward the communities that sustain them.
“There are half a billion people right now every month interacting inside virtual worlds," he said. "The issue is they don’t own those worlds.”
“They don’t have any real equity and can’t really build businesses that will ever be valued, like the businesses in the real world that are built on infrastructure,” he added, pointing to the opportunity to unlock new economies built around shared ownership.
Community influence moves online

“Fans especially from the NBA have so much influence,” Thompson said. “I've seen a community people in Cleveland talk about how bad a coach was, and the next day, he actually got fired.”
“So with the community having that much power, it's how can we take that and bring it in the digital era and create a platform for them to really speak and show their true talents,” he added.
Providing fans with meaningful decision-making power remains difficult. Dreyfus described one early experiment that tested the limits of participation.
“In 2020, fans were able to decide what music to use every time the team scored. It was the first time ever a football stadium in the world let fans vote on a blockchain,” he said.
“These kinds of things give courage because you need to convince the teams, not the players, to actually go on-board, giving a voice to the fans, which is very difficult for private citizens, but technology platforms, crypto, allow you to really distribute this kind of power,” he stressed.
Exploitation and recognition
Narula took a more critical view of how fan labor has historically been rewarded, saying fans “are the most exploited people when it comes to capitalism, in terms of the relationship they have with companies they do free labor for.”
Finding ways to convert that unpaid effort into meaningful leverage, Narula said it is unlikely to come from rights holders alone.
He believes that turning community participation into real power “isn't something that the sports IP providers are going to do themselves.”
“That's something that has to be a part of our movement where fans organize and create powerful things,” he said.
Reputation and accountability
The panel also addressed the ongoing reputational challenges facing crypto-based platforms. Dreyfus said skepticism once made partnerships difficult.
He shared how his brand’s crypto background initially made it difficult to secure partnerships with Paris Saint-Germain.
“Of course, the first thing we'd hear eight years ago is we are a scam and that crypto is never going to last,” Dreyfus said. “Eight years later, on the other hand, this industry is legit and licensed.”
Narula argued that ownership also demands responsibility.
“The point of custody, ownership, and choice is that sometimes you can make bad choices, and sometimes your possession can be lost through bad trades,” he said. “I think the question really is: ‘how do we create much more attention and value in terms of reputation in the system?’”
“I think having people who have an anonymous identity launch a company and don’t tell anyone who they are is not cool. That’s just insane,” Narula said. “We as an industry need to really block out those people that don’t want to reveal who they are, don’t want to take responsibility for what they do.”
The discussion took place during The Digital Stadium: Building the Next-Gen Fan Ecosystem panel at Binance Blockchain Week.
This article has been edited and republished on 16/12/25 due to misattribution of quotes in the original.