Eben Smith and Preston Johnson are two men who, at first glance, do not evoke the figure of the classic football fan. One of two things: either football really doesn't arouse the slightest interest in them or they are the most atypical followers of this traditional sport. Be that as it may, the close relationship of these two people with the grass is motivated, as is increasingly common, by money. However, they are very different from the usual investors: they plan a technological revolution that takes the sports experience to another level.
His company, the WAGMI United consortium, exploits the advantages of new blockchain technology and derivative products such as NFTs to try to implement a groundbreaking business model in football. His first guinea pig is Crawley Town, a team from League Two, the fourth tier of the British league system.
This club was born in 1896 in the city of the same name, located in the county of West Sussex. It shares a nickname with Manchester United, the Red Devils, but it goes one step further, since it even carries it on the shield. It is the only thing it has in common with the successful Mancunian entity.
For the rest, he has always wandered through regional football, at least until his debts were paid off in 2010 and the conglomerate that owned him was able to inject money to make him one of the richest teams in the Non-League (the amateur categories of English football). That season they reached the round of 16 of the FA Cup, where they lost, precisely, against Manchester United; and promoted for the first time to the Football League, which encompasses the categories considered professional.
From their modest position in the British footballing hierarchy, Crawley Town have become one of the most technologically advanced clubs, thanks to the futuristic mentality of Johnson and Smith. The first comes from the world of professional sports betting, from where he made the leap to investment in cryptocurrencies, until arriving at WAGMI United. Now, his goal is to make his team transcend the limits of the field and the stadium and turn it into an experience that anyone, in person or digitally, can enjoy and feel part of.
"A lot of the world, whether it's football, sports crypto or whatever, leads digital native lives. We think there's an opportunity for the remote fan to feel connected to the club as well. We want to offer access to both local and to remote ones, and technology gives us the ability to do it in a way that has never been done before," Johnson explained about the purpose of his project in statements to The Guardian.
How does this ethereal idea materialize? Crawley Town wants to empower the supporter, recognizing their central role in the club's development. In this line, the followers will be able to buy digital tokens that will give them decision-making capacity in the team's affairs. But not in trivial matters, like at Paris Saint-Germain, where fans could, for example, vote for an inspiring message that would be printed on the captain's armband; but on weighty issues, such as budget distribution or transfer preferences. "This makes NFTs of tangible value," Johnson told The Guardian.
At the moment, the terms used in the technological jargon used by Crawley Town managers are not yet very widespread, so it is important to explain them in order to understand exactly the innovative idea they have about the sports business model of the future.
The tools that they intend to implement in the club are part of what is known as web3 or web 3.0. If until now we lived in the era of web 2.0 or social web, characterized by the interconnection of people and the ease of sharing information, this new internet service model is characterized by decentralization. The investor Packy McCormick, in a definition collected in The New York Times, explains that "web3 is a network that is owned by developers and users, coordinated with tokens."
These tokens will become more and more common in the world of football. These are digital tokens created in a blockchain, that is, in a technology that allows keeping a secure record of digital operations without the intervention of third parties. These tokens will give fans decision-making power in the club and access to exclusive benefits. Unlike NFTs, which are so fashionable today, they are exchangeable or redeemable for experiences or products. However, they also have that speculative point, as they are not backed by any cryptocurrency. Their value will be determined by the interest they generate.
Socios.com is the pioneer in this step towards integrating the fan into the club's core of power. They have created the fan tokens and many teams have not hesitated to enter, signing multiple sponsorship contracts (they already appear on the jerseys of teams such as Valencia or Inter Milan) and implementing their products. What's more, even LaLiga has a collaboration agreement with the company. But Socios.com is not the only company that entered the sector.
Tokenchampions is another of the pioneers. In addition, it has designed a new use for digital tokens: the first investment fund created for the acquisition and management of soccer player image rights. Behind this conglomerate is a historical character in the Barcelona football environment, the former coach, agent and candidate at the time for the presidency of Barça Josep Maria Minguella.
That a person as proven in the world of football as Minguella, recognized for his central role in hiring the caliber of Maradona and Messi for FC Barcelona, bets so firmly on the implementation of this type of technology in the management and financing system of clubs and rights of soccer players is a very significant fact. On many occasions, the usual thing when it comes to starting to apply certain novelties that break with the established norm is rejection.
The use of web3 technology in football is already a reality, but in the development phase. It is difficult to normalize the use of tools with which most of ordinary society is not familiar. However, it is already here. Major competitions, clubs and players are beginning to bet on the use of fan tokens as a method of financing and engagement. It is impossible to know if this technology will end up prevailing, but what seems certain is that, sooner rather than later, the management model for football institutions and agents will complete this transition to the digital world.
