With a salary of around 41 million euros per year excluding bonus, according to The Parisian, the Argentine footballer has already made history. His remuneration indeed includes a part of “fan tokens”, according to Reuters, confirmed since by a press release from Paris-Saint-Germain. However, the amount of these tokens has not been specified.
Digital tokens intended to retain the audience of professional sports clubs, fan tokens are based on a technology similar to that of bitcoin, the blockchain, a public and digital transaction register, with the notable difference that that of the PSG fan token is much more centralized. The tokens are thus issued on the blockchain of the company Chiliz, owner of Socios.com, the partner platform of PSG. The Parisian club was also the first to join forces three years ago with this start-up owned by Mediarex, a company from Lyonnais Alexandre Dreyfus, headquartered in Malta.
“Paris-Saint-Germain is determined to exploit the opportunities offered by cryptocurrency. This revolutionary technology will have a big impact on the club’s overall business strategy and the way we interact with our fans ”, PSG sponsorship director Marc Armstrong explained at the time. Since then, Socios.com has multiplied partnerships with other clubs, such as Juventus Turin, AC Milan, FC Barcelona or Galatasaray.
Source of new income
In the sights for clubs, new income: as the name suggests, fan tokens are primarily sold to supporters against the promise of exclusive benefits, such as the ability to vote for jersey colors, access to promotional operations or the possibility of broadcasting a personal message within the stadium. “These tokens have one use for the fans: governance. However, it remains limited, confirms Stanislas Barthelemi, analyst for the firm KPMG France. Make no mistake: we are asking to vote on the look of the club bus or the color of the captain’s armband, not to speak out on important decisions. “
Despite the silence of the clubs and Socios.com on this subject, the interest of these tokens lies less in this interaction than in their speculative character because they are also exchanged against bitcoin, ether (the currency of the blockchain Ethereum) or traditional currencies. Thus, after a public launch in 2018 on the Chiliz platform at an average price of around two euros, the PSG fan token appreciates today at around 35 euros on the Binance cryptocurrency exchange platform.
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