Yahoo Finance’s Josh Schafer details how blockchain companies like Socios are partnering with NFL teams and ways to expand fan experiences through digital assets.
Video Transcript
– NFL season is just 148 days away. Yes, I am keeping track. And it will look a little different on the field in terms of overtime changes the NFL has made, and off the field, in terms of the rules the NFL has related to blockchain and their sponsorships. Josh Schafer is here with us on how this could change the game off the field, in particular, with the fans. Hey, Josh.
JOSH SCHAFER: Yeah, Dave. So what happened about a month ago now, a little less than a month ago, the NFL made it legal for teams to partner with blockchain companies. So they can now enter into these partnerships. Today we’re seeing some of those come to fruition.
So socios.com, a fan experience company that helps teams monetize their fan bases beyond the local market, is sort of what they’re going for. They partnered with 13 teams today, including the Bears, the 49ers, the defending Super Bowl champion LA Rams.
And these partnerships are really just meant to expose fans to socios.com. It is not a direct crypto partnership. There’s no cryptocurrency really involved here.
So what’s happening is say, a Browns fan won an all-expenses paid trip to the NFL draft, a 49ers fan got to meet former 49ers tackle Joe Staley, and that 49ers transaction is actually going to be featured on the NBC Sports Bay Area broadcast, so some pretty cool fan experiences there.
And really, it’s different than what we’ve seen Socios do in Europe. So the US hasn’t allowed fan tokens yet. None of the leagues have. The NFL is not allowing fan tokens yet. But this might be Socios’ entrance into the US market to set themselves up for fan tokens.
In Europe, the way these fan tokens work is fans can buy a token. And then once they have that token, they’re in an exclusive club. In that club, they can vote on what the team might do, maybe what Jersey they’re going to wear. And from there, they earn rewards points, the fans get rewarded.
And really, what the big thing here is, this is if they do go the fan token route, if the NFL eventually goes fan token, that’s how they interact with all these international markets we’ve been hearing about, right? The NFL’s expanding internationally. They want to be able to monetize those international markets. Well, a fan token might be able to do that for them.
– Josh, while we got you, let’s stay in NFL lane, if you will, because Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys, they’ve got a new big deal with blockchain.com. It seems like there are a lot of partnerships being struck up today. And so why did this make sense for the quote unquote, “America’s team?”
JOSH SCHAFER: Yeah, [? Brad. ?] Well, you know, down in Dallas, they always do it big, right? So they went with a big company in blockchain.com. Blockchain.com is valued at $14 billion. The company has about 82 million wallets in 200 countries, so pretty worldwide brand here.
And again, this one’s even less cryptocurrency related in the sense that there’s no crypto rewards, or really, anything crypto happening other than the blockchain.com name. It’s going to be advertising.
Think what we’ve seen from DraftKings and FanDuel and those sports gambling companies. That’s what we’re going to see from blockchain.com and the Cowboys. And then there is going to be a little bit of Italian where I think there’s going to be some rewards for their digital wallet for the crypto savvy Cowboys fans to figure out.
– Josh Schafer with us. If there’s revenue to be had out there, Jerry Jones will indeed find it. Check out Josh’s piece up right now on yahoofinance.com Good stuff, my friend. Thank you.